This proposal is a request for new funding of an institutional pre- and postdoctoral NRSA Training Program in Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis at Northwestern University Medical School. The training program will be run in conjunction with the Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis graduate track, a component of the highly successful Integrated Graduate Program in the Life Sciences (IGP). The IGP will be the mechanism for recruitment of a pool of highly qualified graduate students from which predoctoral candidates will be selected. The training program will also be supported by the Northwestern Interdepartmental Immunobiology Center. The training program will stress the interactive nature of immunology and molecular pathogenesis, two traditionally related disciplines. Successful research in immunology and molecular pathogenesis requires consultation and collaboration among colleagues, therefore this program includes nineteen trainers with primary appointments in both basic science (Microbiology-Immunology, Pathology and Pharmacology) and clinical departments (Medicine and Neurology) at the Medical School Campus all of whom currently hold peer-reviewed funding. The program also includes five training consultants who are highly funded medical experts in various disciplines related to immunology and/or molecular pathogenesis who will not serve as trainers, but will serve in various capacities to lend a clinical perspective to the training process. The training program therefore has the effect of bringing together a cadre of highly productive, well-funded researchers experienced in pre- and postdoctoral training, who can impart both basic and clinical perspectives to the trainees. The result will be a more productive research environment, both for the pre- and postdoctoral students and for the many research projects funded by grants from the NIH and other federal and private agencies. The training grant also proposes to foster trainee interactions with scientists at other institutions through trainee travel to national meetings (to present and receive critiques on their research and to develop contacts with other scientists) and through visits of prominent scientists to Northwestern Medical School as trainee-invited speakers. The training program also serves to focus the activities at the University aimed at educating students in the ethics of science and at recruiting minorities to graduate and post-graduate studies in immunology and molecular pathogenesis. The program requests six predoctoral slots and two postdoctoral slots per year to be phased in over the first two years of the program, thus permitting three predoctoral trainees and one postdoctoral trainee to be appointed each year for two years terms. Predoctoral students will be appointed at the end of the second year after they have completed their coursework and qualifying exams and have identified a research advisor, while postdoctoral candidates will be appointed at the outset of their training. The proposed program will give training in immunology and molecular pathogenesis at Northwestern the constancy it needs to maintain its momentum and continued growth, allowing the continued supply of highly trained young investigators with primary interests in the basic mechanisms of the disease process.
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