(taken from application) The last ten years have witnessed a dramatic increase in interest in the field of bone and mineral metabolism. This application is an attempt to use the resources that we have established in San Antonio to provide an innovative training program which is specifically designed to train young scientists, physicians and dentists in this field and equip them with resources in basic bone cell biology, molecular biology, protein chemistry and clinical research to establish a comprehensive training program in bone and mineral metabolism. Laboratory work for trainees engaged in basic science projects is performed in the laboratories of the faculty preceptors. One of the """"""""laboratories"""""""" for our clinical trainees will be the Clinical Research Unit, which is an NIH-funded General Clinical Research Center located in one of our teaching hospitals. The preceptors for this training program are faculty members with active research programs in molecular biology, protein chemistry, bone cell biology and clinical research related to disorders of calcium, homeostasis and metabolic bone disease. They come from the Departments of Medicine, Pathology, Orthopedics, Pediatric Dentistry, Cellular and Structural Biology, Physiology, and Biochemistry. Our faculty are very successful in obtaining extramural grants and these grants in total currently provide approximately $12 million in direct costs annually to support their research ($10,699,266 in NIH and VA grant support). Since we feel that most young scientists, MDs and DDSs in particular, lack the formal and didactic training characteristics of most PhD programs, we have established an organized didactic program designed to prepare our trainees to function as future independent researchers. This program includes courses in scientific design, statistical analysis of medical reports, medical writing and grant preparation, teaching skills, clinical trial methodology and new advances in biotechnology. During the fifteen years since this grant was first funded, we have had over 100 trainees who have entered our training program and 97 who have completed it. Our trainees have included a mix of Ph.Ds and MDs and DDSs. More than 85% of our total graduates are in full-time academic/ research careers. Of the trainees supported by the NIH Institutional Training Grant, we have had 25 graduates, 18 of whom are in full-time academic/ research careers.
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