The principal mission of the University of California, San Francisco Male Reproductive Health Research (MRHR) Career Development Program is to promote health and prevent disease by expanding the pool of well-trained, imaginative, productive investigators in men's reproductive health. It is our goal to recruit and prepare outstanding faculty candidates to acquire the skills and expertise needed to fulfill this mission. We have designed our program to provide mentoring and research career development for scholars in one of three tracks - basic, clinical, or translational research in male reproductive health. The program also has the most qualified and talented mentors at UCSF in male reproductive health and relevant disciplines. Specifically, these include developmental and stem cell biology and genetics, steroidogenesis, sexual function and health, male infertility, infertility outcomes research using broad and ethnically diverse databases of reproductive age men, reproductive tract infectious disease investigation and outcomes and health policy research. The program has been designed to recruit the most qualified candidates, nationally, from urology, gynecology/reproductive endocrinology and general endocrinology backgrounds, through an established University of California process to search for ethnic and gender diversity in the applicant pool. Once appointed, there are two phases of Scholar training, depending on an individual's previous research experience. The mentoring program is structured with a strong, broad, fundamental knowledge base (didactic and/or practical) that is then individually tailored for basic, clinical, and translational research in men's reproductive health. The innovative didactic curriculum is based on very successful basic and clinical science graduate training programs and includes new training programs in stem cell biology, written and oral communication, and leadership. Scholars are also trained in the ethical conduct of research, have well defined milestones for accomplishing scientific goals, and have regular meetings with mentors, program leadership and others in the scientific community. The Resource Core for Scholars will support database access and analysis in a clinical research core, stem cell biology, genomics and informatics, and men's reproductive health advocacy. The core also contains a Scholars Tracking Database, as well as an electronic evaluation system for both scholars and mentors. Anticipated outcomes include excellence in training, understanding and coherently articulating, in the form of grant writing and awards, the scientific challenges and clinical translation in men's reproductive health, and competency in manuscript writing. With these elements, we are committed to nurturing a cadre of UCSF MRHR scholars that will discover and expand knowledge, test innovations, and become future leaders in the field of men's reproductive health.
| Eisenberg, Michael L; Schembri, Michael; Croughan, Mary S et al. (2011) Fecundity and sex ratio of offspring in an infertile cohort. Fertil Steril 96:833-6 |
| Walsh, Thomas J; Schembri, Michael; Turek, Paul J et al. (2010) Increased risk of high-grade prostate cancer among infertile men. Cancer 116:2140-7 |
| Walsh, Thomas J; Wu, Alex K; Croughan, Mary S et al. (2009) Differences in the clinical characteristics of primarily and secondarily infertile men with varicocele. Fertil Steril 91:826-30 |
| Walsh, Thomas J; Croughan, Mary S; Schembri, Michael et al. (2009) Increased risk of testicular germ cell cancer among infertile men. Arch Intern Med 169:351-6 |
| Smith, James F; Walsh, Thomas J; Shindel, Alan W et al. (2009) Sexual, marital, and social impact of a man's perceived infertility diagnosis. J Sex Med 6:2505-15 |
| Smith, James F; Walsh, Thomas J; Conti, Simon L et al. (2008) Risk factors for emotional and relationship problems in Peyronie's disease. J Sex Med 5:2179-84 |
