Yale University School of Medicine is seeking to be one of the centers of excellence in diabetes training that will allow bright young pediatricians to establish academic careers in pediatric endocrinology as independent investigators in diabetes. In this T32 application, we are requesting 2 post-doctoral fellowship stipends per year for 5 years. Yale has an impressive array of resources that will support this program, including a DERC, separate Children and Adult GCRC's, JDRF Center for the Study of Hypoglycemia, Pediatric Pharmacology Research Unit, Child Health Research Center, Mouse Metabolic Phenotyping Center, NMR Center and a new 450,000 sq. foot clinical science research facility. The Program Director and training faculty are highly respected and productive investigators with extensive peer-reviewed grant support to fund trainees' projects. Our faculty has a long history of extensive collaborations and an outstanding track record in training post-doctoral fellows. Post-doctoral trainees can choose between five major areas of research training (pathophysiology of T1 and T2 DM, hypoglycemia/neurobiology, immunobiology of diabetes and behavioral/psychosocial aspects of diabetes) and 4-6 primary and secondary mentors within each area. A centerpiece of our educational activities is the Investigative Medicine Program that provides a rigorous curriculum of required and elective courses along two pathways, i.e., patient-oriented and disease-oriented. Successful completion of course work and thesis project will allow trainees to receive a Ph.D. that is awarded through the Department of Medicine. Alternative curricula for non-Ph.D. candidates include the Quantitative Clinical Epidemiology course offered by the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program and the Seminar Series for Young Investigators offered by the Yale Child Health Research Center. The formation of a """"""""consortium"""""""" of three centers of excellence in diabetes research training will allow us to collaborate in training efforts as well as in innovative recruitment plans. Moreover, Dr. James Gavin, former President of the ADA and incoming President of Morehouse School of Medicine, has indicated his interest in linking his school to our program in the recruitment of African American trainees.
