While the HIV/AIDS pandemic continues, the incidence of HIV infections has fallen because of the deployment of antiviral drugs and multiple prevention modalities. Recent research successes in targeting complete elimination of HIV, development of novel vaccines and therapeutics, and progress in treating and preventing HIV-associated comorbidities, makes this an exciting time in HIV/AIDS research ? but continued progress will require interdisciplinary, collaborative efforts by highly trained, expert scientists. The goal of this proposal is to prepare young scientists for that role. Particularly, we will prepare predoctoral students for leadership roles in HIV/AIDS research, through an innovative training program that will provide comprehensive, professional and technical skills and knowledge, in an autonomy-supportive environment that encourages self- directed exploration of learning paths relevant to the full range of research careers. Hands-on research training will be conducted in an outstanding scientific milieu that focuses on key strengths of the University of Rochester (UR)'s Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and high priority areas (as defined by NIH): (1) cure research, including HIV RNA Biology and the central nervous system (CNS) reservoir of infection; (2) end organ disease and aging, including cardiovascular and CNS disease; (3) prevention research, including vaccines and novel therapeutics. This T32 program will incorporate instruction in professional skills, structured research career development paths, experiential learning opportunities, and a mentor training program intended to ensure an autonomy-supportive learning environment that encourages self-directed learning and exploration of diverse career options. Finally, new program-specific courses have been added, while the overall graduate curriculum has been streamlined ? to allow more time for discipline-specific training, self- directed career development/exploration and experiential learning. The program has following major objectives: (1) To provide outstanding, interdisciplinary research training enriched by unique resources created by UR's CFAR and CTSI; (2) To provide outstanding didactic and hands-on education in HIV/AIDS research. This will be achieved by incorporating four major component ? a required core didactic curriculum, required program-specific group experiences; (3) optional elective courses, and experiences designed to encourage student exploration and autonomy and (4) hands-on thesis research; (3) To enhance training outcomes via structured mentoring. In this case the students will receive autonomy-supportive mentoring, which will be further enhanced by supplementary `Peer Mentoring' and through an Alumni Mentoring Network that will provide advice, guidance and informal mentoring on a one-on-one basis. To strengthen faculty mentoring practices we will employ ?mentor our mentors? program; and (4) To empower student autonomy, and to encourage self-directed learning and exploration of diverse career options by leveraging resources created by UR's BEST program. !
This predoctoral training program seeks to prepare the next generation of researchers with the skills necessary to address the nation's critical needs to battle against diseases caused by HIV. To do this, the program takes a student-centric, autonomy supportive approach with the goal of training self-motivated, independent research scientists, who are well prepared for diverse research career paths.
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