The University of Southern California (USC) Training Program in Cellular, Biochemical, and Molecular Sciences (CBM Training Program) prepares students for careers in interdisciplinary biomedical research and related occupations. Major goals of the Program are to promote interdisciplinary training and to make students aware of computational methods which will be useful for their current and future research and for their careers. Trainees are selected from 14 different Ph.D. programs at USC which span the entire spectrum of biomedical and biological sciences. This ensures that Trainees receive a multidisciplinary experience in the CBM Program and are the """"""""cream of the crop"""""""" at USC. CBM Trainees have diverse backgrounds and research interests, come from many parts of the U.S. and foreign countries, and include under-represented minority students. In addition to the requirements of their Ph.D. programs, Trainees benefit from Training Program-specific activities, including monthly Trainee research presentations, workshops with computational or career development themes, interactions with selected speakers from outside USC, participation in recruitment of new graduate students, training in ethical standards of research, and an annual retreat. The computational theme of the CBM Program takes advantage of areas of special strength at USC in computational genomics and cancer epidemiology, both of which emphasize quantitative treatments of complex data sets. Most CBM Trainees are supported during their second and third years of graduate school and continue to participate in the Program until completion of their Ph.D. degree. The CBM Program works closely with USC's outstanding graduate student recruitment mechanism, called Program in Biomedical and Biological Sciences (PIBBS). During their first year at USC, students in PIBBS rotate with several faculty, chosen from any biologically-oriented Ph.D. program at USC. The outstanding PIBBS web site attracts more than 100 U.S. and more than 500 total applicants per year. Faculty and staff attend national and regional recruitment fairs, including those targeted to under-represented minority students. We also have formal partnerships with BRIDGES-to-the-Ph.D. programs at local minority-serving institutions. These measures ensure that we will continue to attract a diverse group of high-quality trainees. ? ? ?
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