The goal of this program is to train 6 pre-doctoral PhD candidates and 12 PhD and MD post doctoral fellows per year in the research disciplines of greatest importance for identifying and solving the problems of lung health maintenance and disease. Since the last submission, our program has grown to 40 faculty and evolved permitting us to re-organize our scientific focus groups (SFGs) to specifically address the strategic areas of importance defined by NHLBI. We offer training in: 1. Development and Regenerative Medicine (including gene therapy and matrix biology);2. Immunology and Inflammation (including innate immunity, cytokine biology, vaccine development and emerging airborne infectious diseases) and;3. Population Sciences (including Genetics, Genomics, Epidemiology, and Bioinformatics /Systems Biology). Each of these disciplines has a critical mass of experienced senior and junior faculty mentors which represent a broad range of expertise for trainees, such that every trainee gets the advantage of the group expertise in weekly meetings. Each group has laboratories that offer basic, translational and clinical science experiences, purposely integrated to provide a learning experience for every trainee. This continues our 34 year tradition of placing pre- doctoral students and post-doctoral PhD and MD fellows in integrated environments to provide a full spectrum of translational experiences. We will provide traditional laboratory based research opportunities for pre-doctoral students interested in studying lung sciences after completion of course work from either of 2 formal degree granting pathways Bioinformatics/Systems Biology or Molecular Medicine. For MD post-doctoral trainees we provide unique, integrated and customized post doctoral Masters degree programs in Statistics/ Epidemiology, Public Health, Bioinformatics and Clinical Investigation combined with traditional laboratory based experiences in laboratories within the three SFGs;and similar lab based experiences for PhD post-doctoral trainees. This award has supported over 75 doctoral students and over 140 MD and PhD post- doctoral fellows over the past 34 years in multiple disciplines related to lung diseases. Our graduates include many Chiefs of Pulmonary Medicine, 2 Chairs in Medicine, 3 Associate Deans and numerous Professors and national leaders in every field of Pulmonary Science with high profile funded research programs. The breadth and depth of the training portfolio we now offer is the most superior research experience in our 34 years and is specifically designed to address all the major areas of strategic interest of the Division of Lung Diseases of NHLBI.
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