This interdisciplinary Training Program in Immunology is designed to train and support five Pre-doctoral students and three Post-doctoral fellows (two Ph.D. and one M.D.) in modern Immunology. This program is in its 15th year and is submitted for competitive renewal. The proposed training is interdisciplinary with 32 faculty mentors derived from both Basic and Clinical departments within the Medical Center, as well as mentors from Department of Chemistry. The training opportunities encompass both basic and clinical Immunology. The pre-doctoral training program (which supports 5 trainees) emphasizes a core, curriculum, advanced courses and bench research leading to research publications and the Ph.D. degree. The training for the post-doctoral fellows is primarily guided by the faculty mentors in whose laboratories these fellows acquire their training, along with consultation and oversight by the Training Program Executive committee. The emphasis of the postdoctoral training program is to foster the development of trainees into independent scientists-scholars. In the past 10 years (plus current year) years of this Training Grant, 20 of 43 pre-doc trainees supported have received their PhD degrees;of this group, two are already as Assistant Professors at Universities, and 13 pursuing post-doctoral training at various academic institutions. Among the post-doc trainees 22 out of 31 trainees have completed their training, with 13 past-trainees holding positions as Assistant or Associate Professor at academic institutions, and 4 as Research Scientists in industry. 20 of our 31 post-doctoral trainees (66%) have successfully written/secured external fellowships such as NRSA or private foundations. We submit that this speaks well for the vibrancy and quality of training provided by the mentors of this program. In response to the critiques of the previous submission of this T32 Immunology Training Grant (Sep 2008), we have revised the application to address the reviewers'points, and have also instituted a number of key changes to the program. These include recruitment of new junior faculty mentors to the training program, appointment of a formal 3-member External Advisory Committee, anonymous surveys to obtain feedback from trainees, and other programmatic changes. In light of the continued success of our trainees over the length of the Training Program, and recent changes instituted, we hope that the revised application meets the criteria for continuation of this Immunology Training Grant at the University of Virginia.
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