This training grant produces physician and post-doctoral investigators in the field of sleep health and its physiology and the epidemiology and treatment of sleep disorders that substantially impact individual quality-of-life and produce illnesses causing behavioral and cardiovascular morbidity in our society. There are needs for basic discovery and clinical outcomes research at many levels of translational research. Causal pathways are traditionally considered in the associations with obesity, gender, aging, etc., and clinical assessments though physiologic testing. As a result, science of sleep medicine (sleep physiology and circadian rhythm) still has major gaps in functional understanding of biologic markers, protein networks, and brain physiology which will inform future treatments and prevention. There One barrier is a paucity of investigators across the translational spectrum and the ability of trainees to see the broader picture- i.e. clinicians appreciating the need for basic research and those in fundamental research understanding the clinical disease or syndrome. There are evident opportunities to improve current therapy through comparison effectiveness studies or new technology. The program is directed by Kingman P. Strohl, who heads the Center for Sleep Disorders Research at Case Western Reserve University. This Center now reaches into three Schools in the University (Medicine, Engineering, and Nursing) and engages four Cleveland academic medical centers. He and his two Associate Directors approve admission to the program and monitor trainees' progress using formative, comprehensive assessment tools. Looking backwards and forwards, the program will move towards its roots in epidemiology and physiology, yet retain curricular element and M.S. degrees in Systems Biology and Bioinformatics, and Clinical Investigation. There is a core of twelve faculty mentors and four early career faculty as junior trainers; and nine experienced sleep faculty who agree to participate as a member of a trainee committee. Listed faculty represent six departments and each has published work in sleep, circadian biology, sleep epidemiology, respiratory control, and/or clinical investigation. The program requests two post-graduate, and two pre-doctoral trainees. We provide options for a Master's Degree in Clinical Investigation (the CTST Clinical Research Scholars Program) or in Systems Biology for MD post-doctoral trainees. For all trainees the essence is individualized, supervised research training; and all trainees meet to engage in didactic work encompassing sleep science and medicine, exposure to its ethical, legal, and community issues, and career development. For pre-doctoral trainees, the degree-granting department determines course work, thesis progress and graduation status, with at least one T32 faculty as a member of the Ph.D. committee. Post-doctoral trainees also create a training committee which assesses their progress, and provides career guidance. All trainees maintain a portfolio of work with self-assessments of progress that forms the basis for semi-annual assessments. Attendance at Sleep Grand Rounds and in the clinic is required for all mentees, and as is the annual retreat of the group with outside advisors and faculty. A strong feature is the interdisciplinary linkages among Medicine, Pediatrics, Physiology & Biophysics, Neuroscience, Computer Sciences and Engineering, and Biostatistics and Epidemiology. The proposal addresses the need for researchers to better manage sleep problems and disorders, like sleep apnea and insomnia, which significantly affect public health in the United States and the world. The methods involve a structured program in which graduate students, physician- scientists, and postdoctoral PhD fellows learn to plan, conduct, and publish research in sleep, its disorders, and its relationship to human illness.
The proposal addresses the need for researchers to better manage sleep problems and disorders, like sleep apnea and insomnia, which significantly affect public health in the United States and the world. The methods involve a structured program in which graduate students, physician- scientists, and postdoctoral PhD fellows learn to plan, conduct, and publish research in sleep, its disorders, and its relationship to human illness.
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