? Through this competitive renewal Yale University Department of Dermatology proposes to continue its strong track record of training future leaders of academic dermatology. Of the sixteen trainees supported for one or more years by this T32 program during the past ten years and who have completed their subspecialty and/or research training, thirteen (80%) subsequently received full-time appointments to academic departments or the federal government, with major basic and/or clinical research commitments for twelve of them. Our emphasis on the development of the research skills of MD and MD/PhD dermatologists will be maintained, although PhD candidates judged likely to make substantive contributions to investigative dermatology will be considered for unfilled positions. Our department provides an environment conducive to training research dermatologists: sixteen of the twenty-one fulltime primary Dermatology faculty are actively engaged in basic and/or clinical research and nine spend > 50% effort on such research activities. Facilitated by the NIH-sponsored Yale Skin Diseases Research Core Center, our Dermatology-based research faculty interacts extensively with other leading investigators with primary appointments in other Yale departments, including fourteen researchers designated as preceptors for this training program, six of whom hold joint appointments in Dermatology. Because we consider it most conducive to the trainees' development of intellectual independence and to the introduction of new scientific skills into the dermatology community, substantial exposure to outstanding Yale University basic scientists outside of our department will continue to be mandatory. As during the past two funding periods, each trainee will have two advisors, one inside and one outside the Dermatology Department. In the usual circumstance in which the principal laboratory experience is outside the department, under the mentorship of one of the designated non-dermatologist basic scientists or another equivalent individual, the Dermatology Department faculty advisor will monitor progress of the trainee and certify that the training program is relevant to the trainee's future in the specialty. In the event that the trainee works directly in a dermatology laboratory, the non-dermatology Yale advisor will ensure exposure to additional basic technology, scientific review, seminars and peer group interactions. Training opportunities will continue to be available throughout a broad range of research arenas relevant to cutaneous biology: e.g., cellular and molecular immunobiology of normal and malignant T cells, B cells and dendritic cells; autoimmunity; vaccine development; melanocyte biology and melanoma; keratinocyte biology and carcinogenesis; gene therapy; microvasculature structure/function and wound healing. ? ?
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