Purpose and Program Overview. This training program has successfully trained graduate students in the fields of hormone mechanisms, gene regulation, molecular and cellular endocrinology, inflammation, human disease, neuroendocrinology, neurodegeneration and neurobiology for the past 25 years. The strength of the program is its outstanding core faculty and the unusually rich research environment provided the University of California, San Diego, the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences and The Scripps Research Institute. The faculty are all internationally recognized for their research accomplishments and have long records of training graduate students who have gone on to very productive careers. Thus far, we have 28 students who have academic positions as independent investigators in outstanding academic institutions, and 10 who are investigators in biotech companies, with others currently at the end of their postdoctoral training period. This program is interdisciplinary, involving faculty from the UCSD School of Medicine, Department of Biology and Department's and Divisions of Endocrinology, Physiology, Pharmacology, Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Neural Systems and The Salk Institute participate. Graduate students are immersed in contemporary research approaches to important questions, learn the new high-throughput concepts and techniques applicable to molecular biology, cellular biology, genomics, genetics and biochemistry and have been acquiring the broad background of the literature and basic science of these fields required for discovery. Formal courses, hands-on laboratory experience, and intensive interaction with our outstanding program faculty working at the leading edge of their field will also prepare trainees for teaching in this discipline. We hope to be permitted the opportunity to continue this highly successful predoctoral training grant. We are quite proud of the remarkable success of our training program graduates. Trainees: Eight trainee students per year, with bachelor degrees in biology or chemistry will be admitted to the Ph.D. programs. They are selected from >350 applicants to each of the two graduate programs on the basis of point average, GRE scores, and interviews with faculty and advanced graduate students with full attempt to attract minority students. Graduate students will be directed towards careers in contemporary gene regulation, molecular endocrinology, regulation neuroendocrinology and/or neurobiology and translation to human disease. They were encouraged to develop skills in innovation, rigor, bench science, writing, teaching, translational research and oral presentation.

Public Health Relevance

of our training program 'Molecular Biological Approaches to Endocrinology,' to basic science research and translation to human disease in the United States has been remarkable, with our outstanding faculty having trained >40 independent investigators over the course of this program. These talented trainees have made a critical impact on our understanding of genetics, genomics, transcription, inflammation, neurodevelopment, development of the endocrine system, neurodegeneration, and a series of common and devastating diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurodegeneration. More than 80% of our 'graduates' have gone on to successful careers as independent investigators at our best Universities, have made sustained, outstanding research contributions, as well as teaching future generations of American scientists.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
Type
Institutional National Research Service Award (T32)
Project #
4T32DK007541-30
Application #
9049471
Study Section
Kidney, Urologic and Hematologic Diseases D Subcommittee (DDK)
Program Officer
Castle, Arthur
Project Start
1986-12-20
Project End
2017-03-31
Budget Start
2016-04-01
Budget End
2017-03-31
Support Year
30
Fiscal Year
2016
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California San Diego
Department
Internal Medicine/Medicine
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
804355790
City
La Jolla
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
92093
Link, Verena M; Duttke, Sascha H; Chun, Hyun B et al. (2018) Analysis of Genetically Diverse Macrophages Reveals Local and Domain-wide Mechanisms that Control Transcription Factor Binding and Function. Cell 173:1796-1809.e17
Suetomi, Takeshi; Willeford, Andrew; Brand, Cameron S et al. (2018) Inflammation and NLRP3 Inflammasome Activation Initiated in Response to Pressure Overload by Ca2+/Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase II ? Signaling in Cardiomyocytes Are Essential for Adverse Cardiac Remodeling. Circulation 138:2530-2544
Wang, Jianxun; Saijo, Kaoru; Skola, Dylan et al. (2018) Histone demethylase LSD1 regulates hematopoietic stem cells homeostasis and protects from death by endotoxic shock. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 115:E244-E252
Muse, Evan D; Yu, Shan; Edillor, Chantle R et al. (2018) Cell-specific discrimination of desmosterol and desmosterol mimetics confers selective regulation of LXR and SREBP in macrophages. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 115:E4680-E4689
Holtman, Inge R; Skola, Dylan; Glass, Christopher K (2017) Transcriptional control of microglia phenotypes in health and disease. J Clin Invest 127:3220-3229
Pirzgalska, Roksana M; Seixas, Elsa; Seidman, Jason S et al. (2017) Sympathetic neuron-associated macrophages contribute to obesity by importing and metabolizing norepinephrine. Nat Med 23:1309-1318
Gosselin, David; Skola, Dylan; Coufal, Nicole G et al. (2017) An environment-dependent transcriptional network specifies human microglia identity. Science 356:
Schoeller, Erica L; Clark, Daniel D; Dey, Sandeepa et al. (2016) Bmal1 Is Required for Normal Reproductive Behaviors in Male Mice. Endocrinology 157:4914-4929
Yu, Olivia M; Miyamoto, Shigeki; Brown, Joan Heller (2016) Myocardin-Related Transcription Factor A and Yes-Associated Protein Exert Dual Control in G Protein-Coupled Receptor- and RhoA-Mediated Transcriptional Regulation and Cell Proliferation. Mol Cell Biol 36:39-49
Yu, Olivia M; Brown, Joan Heller (2015) G Protein-Coupled Receptor and RhoA-Stimulated Transcriptional Responses: Links to Inflammation, Differentiation, and Cell Proliferation. Mol Pharmacol 88:171-80

Showing the most recent 10 out of 33 publications