Purpose and Program Characteristics: The primary goal of this training grant is to provide intensive training to predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows in the interdisciplinary field of Cancer Gene Therapy. This program will support physician scientists and Ph.D. scientists at the interface of basic and clinical science. Research training will be provided by faculty members representing basic science and translational research. Recognizing the current lack of individuals trained in cancer gene therapy, the overall goal of the program is to generate young academic investigators with a broad background and an excellent understanding of the integrated approach necessary to translate basic research into a clinical setting. The Gene Therapy Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham offers a unique training resource for the development of young scientists who are likely to play an important role in bringing new technologies from the lab into a clinical setting in the coming years. The interdisciplinary and translational nature of this program provides a unique resource to expand the pool of young investigators who are qualified to carry out this research. Trainees: We request funding for three postdoctoral fellows and one predoctoral fellow. The research training period for postdoctoral fellows will have a duration of at least two years, while support for the predoctoral fellow will be for three years. We anticipate supporting a mix of Ph.D. and physician scientists at the postdoctoral level. The predoctoral trainee will be selected from those students pursuing the gene therapy subspecialty of the Molecular and Cellular Pathology graduate program. Selection of fellows for these training positions will be based on our assessment of the trainee's likelihood of establishing an independent research career in an area relevant to cancer gene therapy. Facilities: The Gene Therapy Center of the University of Alabama at Birmingham will be the major site of the training program. The training faculty occupies more than 20,000 feet of excellent quality, well-equipped laboratory space. As all of the faculty members acting as preceptors on this training grant are members of the Comprehensive Cancer Center, the trainees will have full access to the extensive resources of the Center. The university also has modern animal facilities supervised by veterinarians and run by trained animal care personnel working under NIH guidelines.
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