Funds are requested to support five pre-doctoral (Ph.D. candidates) and 4 postdoctoral trainees in the Integrated Regional Training Program in Environmental Health Sciences. This multidisciplinary program continues to evolve and capitalizes on outstanding regional researchers and programs that are focused on environmental health sciences. Oregon State University (OSU) in Corvallis has a long history of excellence in environmental health sciences research, has partnered with Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU) and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories to provide a comprehensive and interdisciplinary training program for pre- and postdoctoral students in environmental health sciences. OSU is home to a NIEHS-funded Core P30 center as well as the prestigious Linus Pauling Institute (LPI).These centers and institutes, with their associated facilities and services cores, provide outstanding opportunities for research and training in an environment that heavily favors collaborative programs. The NIEHS Training Program at OSU, along with the associated OSU centers and institutes, has experienced significant institutional commitment over the years, which further enhances training opportunities on the OSU campus. Additionally, the Training Program faculty members have active extramural research programs which are reflected in their individual research grant funding. The top applicants to the Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology and the associated Molecular and Cellular Biology graduate program are aggressively recruited as pre-doctoral trainees, and postdoctoral trainees are recruited through national searches. Both pre-doctoral and postdoctoral trainees are selected by the Training program Internal Advisory Committee. The list of mentors includes 27 faculty who are either at OSU, OHSU or PNNL. A strength of this program is the diversity of the research areas; systems biology, exposure biology, epidemiology, developmental toxicity, nanotoxicology, DNA damage and repair, molecular toxicology, neurotoxicology, metabolism, and diet environmental interactions. An important goal of these recruitments is the achievement of diversity among qualified candidates. The productivity of the Training Program's trainees is excellent, and alumni of this training program are currently occupying important positions in academia, government, and industry. Over the next funding period, the training program will be further fine-tuned to improve what is already an outstanding program. There will be a greater emphasis on multidisciplinary training with exciting new training opportunities in public health and exposure biology. The primary goal of the proposed training program is to produce future leaders in the environmental health sciences.
This integrated training program has a successful history in preparing pre-doctoral and postdoctoral scientists for careers in environmental health sciences and related fields. Upon completion of individualized training and career development, our trainees transition to positions in the academic, commercial, regulatory, and nonprofit sectors.
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