This program is designed to implement the aims of the Physician Scientist Program, a program aimed at identifying, training and recruiting the brightest and best of M.D.s into the arena of clinical investigation. Physicians in their early years of clinical training will be invited to apply for a five-year intensive training program that will equip them with the strong basic science orientation needed for truly productive research on biomedical problems. Emphasis is placed on providing tracks that will prepare candidates to carry out meaningful research on problems relating to the four major disease categories of concern to the NIADDK. The first two or three years of training will be at the most basic level so that the trainees can, it is hoped, attack frontier problems using frontier methods. During this first phase of their training the candidates will be assigned to faculty sponsors working in fundamental disciplines of broad applicability to biomedical problems. Direct laboratory experience will be supplemented by didactic training designed to fill gaps in basic science background. Thus, liberal use will be made of the rich menu of basic science courses offered on the La Jolla campus and this will be supplemented by ad hoc small, specialized courses and seminars where appropriate. The last two or three years of training will be devoted to a research problem bearing on the pathophysiology of one of the four disease categories of interest to NIADDK. The nucleus of UCSD faculty planning this program is drawn from the Departments of Biology and Chemistry on the general campus, the basic and clinical faculty of the School of Medicine, the Salk Institute and the Research Foundation of Scripps Clinic. They have been selected on the basis of their proven productivity in research and their track records in training programs. They will have as their goal the development of these young investigators so that after 5 years they should be ready for full responsibilities as junior faculty members with their own research support.
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