The goals of this training program in autoimmunity and connective tissue biology are unchanged. We plan to recruit talented and highly motivated graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and provide these individuals with a first class training program that will prepare them for competitive and independent careers in academic research. The research interests of the program encompass faculty in 6 departments within the medical school (Biochemistry, Medicine, Microbiology, Pathology, Pharmacology/Toxicology, and Physiology) and span a wide range of interest fundamental to basic understanding of autoimmunity and the cellular nad molecular biology of connective tissue disease: cellular immunology, regulation of gene expression, organelle trafficking, membrane signal transduction and secretion, rheumatic disease model, and the structure-function relationship of cytokines and their receptors. Thus, a considerable breadth of experimental and conceptual choices exist for potential trainees, including animal models of disease that should enhance our ability to attract and train M.D.'s interested in careers in academic medicine. The strength of the Training Program continues to be its outstanding faculty, consisting of 17 well-funded faculty with vigorous on-going research programs, utilizing an array of state-of-the-art molecular and cellular techniques. The training programs continues to benefit from the excellent facilities and the recent growth of the already strong graduate programs that lead to the Ph.D. degree in either Molecular and Cellular Biology, Physiology, and Pharmacology/Toxicology. These programs currently house 110 graduate students, with (at this early date (4/98) an entering class of 38 students already committed from a pool of over 400 applicants. Corresponding growth in the MD/PhD program has occurred, who are represented along with medical students and MDs doing research in these laboratories. The training program in autoimmunity and connective tissue biology is interdisciplinary and highly interactive, with exposure to diverse areas of faculty expertise in the basic and clinical sciences in a number of formats which include formal course work, intimate seminars, individual tutorials and several weekly seminar series and journal clubs. These forums facilitate the high level of faculty-student interaction that is traditional at Dartmouth and results in the recognition of our research efforts at both the national and international level.
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