This is a proposal to establish for the first time a training grant in microbiology at UC Davis. The program seeks to train talented predoctoral and postdoctoral students to conduct studies of human infectious diseases using animal models and novel biological methods that are evolving from the revolutions in genomics and bioinformatics. The co-localization of the Graduate School, the Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, and the California National Primate Research Center combine to make UC Davis a unique environment in which to conduct this training. The environment is further enhanced by the Center for Comparative Medicine, a unique training resource that exists nowhere else in the world, and by a major genomics initiative at UC Davis, which will be housed in the Genome and Biomedical Sciences Building, scheduled for occupancy in June 2004. The mentors for the training program will be 20 well-funded investigators at UC Davis, whose work uses animal models to better understand a broad range of viral and bacterial human pathogens. Six training positions are requested for a 5-year funding period, which will be supplemented by funding from Graduate Studies and the Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. Predoctoral and postdoctoral (DVM or MD) trainees will be allocated in a 2:1 ratio and will be selected based upon academic excellence and demonstrated interest in research careers. They will be matched with relevant mentors and their progress will be closely monitored by the Program Director and by an Advisory Committee experienced in graduate and post graduate training. Training will emphasize rigorous scientific research, oral and written scientific communication, and interaction with a broad range of scientists interested in animal models of human infectious diseases. Our goal is to become a pre-eminent training center in the use of animal models and the new genomic biology to better understand human infectious diseases.
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