This is a competitive renewal application for a program to train students to do basic research in the association between chromosome structure and cancer. In continuation of our past program, we are requesting stipends for four trainees at the postdoctoral level. In addition, we are requesting three stipends for training at the predoctoral level. The predoctoral stipend request is appropriate due to the Hutchinson Center's recent authorization to grant the Ph.D. degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology by the State of Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board (granted September 1, 1993). The Center also recently entered an affiliation agreement with the University of Washington (July 1, 1994) and began the first year of the joint Molecular and Cellular Biology Graduate Program with the entering class of September 1994. Training will be performed by a faculty of fourteen investigators, all of whom are members of the Basic Sciences Division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Each faculty member is a recognized expert in his or her own field and has an extensive record of successful training at both the graduate and postgraduate levels. A strength of the program is the diversity of cancer-related model systems under study by the faculty, ranging from genetics of the cell cycle to the enzymology of transcript ion initiation and termination. Predoctoral trainees will be selected from the pool of high quality students admitted yearly to the graduate program. First year students initially rotate through three different laboratories at both the Hutchinson Center and the University before choosing a mentor with whom to do thesis research. Students whose interests are related to cancer will be given priority to be supported by the proposed program. Postdoctoral trainee are selected from a national pool of applicants. In addition to becoming immersed in their chosen research topic, both groups of trainees are encouraged to participate in the intellectual life of the Basic Sciences Division. This includes specialty journal clubs, joint laboratory meetings, and a regular series of seminars by outside speakers. In addition, trainees are expected to present their own findings at regular intervals, both in small group meetings as well as in a more formal weekly research seminar that is attended by the entire Division. This type of training has been shown to be effective in producing young investigators who are capable of independent, creative scientific research in the molecular basis of cancer.
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