This pre-doctoral and postdoctoral program will train environmental health scientists through interdisciplinary research and courses in mission areas of the NIEHS. Training faculty consist of 29 active researchers in the Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Science. Areas of emphasis include neuro-, respiratory and reproductive toxicology, intracellular signaling and oxidative stress. Faculty interests overlap in these areas, leading to interaction among laboratories and to interdisciplinary approaches to human biology and disease. A large pool of excellent pre-doctoral applicants is available through the Pharmacology and Toxicology Graduate Group and other graduate groups (covering such disciplines as molecular biology, genetics, cell biology, neuroscience, pathology, epidemiology) to which the training faculty belong, a strength of graduate education at the University of California, Davis. Postdoctoral applicants will be solicited among those attracted to the laboratories of the training faculty and by advertisements in widely read journals. In addition, trainees will be solicited among new graduates of the campus Masters in Public Health Program. Trainees will have access to advanced technologies, including proteomics, genomics and use of genetically modified mice. A second strength of training at the University of California, Davis is the vertical integration of studies of environmentally induced disease. Molecular, cellular, tissue and whole laboratory animal (including knockout mouse) approaches complement use of nonhuman primates and human clinical samples obtained through the funded Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC). Integration of research with ongoing activities in the various campus research centers (children's health, air pollution, agrochemical exposures and effects, etc.) and with the developing School of Public Health will provide synergy and promote connections to disease prevention and public health. Trainees will receive enrichment in responsible conduct of research and obtain instruction and practice in scientific writing, including proposals for extramural funding. They will also participate in activities communicating scientific findings (seminars, retreats, national meetings) and in workshops organized by the CTSC. This proposed training builds on an established program with a strong track record of meeting the NIEHS mission to protect public health by connecting scientific advances to environmental exposures and the consequent disease processes. BACKGROUND This is a competing continuation application for a Training Program in environmental health sciences at the University of California, Davis that has been in existence for over 30 years and is administered by the Department of Environmental Toxicology. In the past the award has provided support for approximately 120 trainees. The previous funded cycle supported 10 pre-doctoral trainees. In this competing renewal application support is requested for 6 pre-doctoral and 3 postdoctoral trainees each year. Of those completing the program more than 10 years ago, nearly half are in industry, one quarter function as managers and regulators in federal and state governments, approximately 15% are in academia and 5% have left the environmental health sciences field. There are a total of 29 mentors listed with three of them physician-scientists. Over the past 10 years 75% of the students have come out of the Pharmacology and Toxicology (PTX) Graduate Group and this is expected to continue.
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