This is a competitive renewal application for funding for the established (43 years) and successful Mayo Kidney Disease Research Training Program. We plan to continue training qualified postdoctoral individuals (M.D., and/or Ph.D.) for academic careers in kidney diseases, and maintain 3 slots per year. Our interdisciplinary, full time faculty of 36 scientists (23 full faculty and 13 associate faculty) supports basic science and translational training opportunities in hypertension, cystic kidney disease, mechanisms of kidney injury, mineral metabolism, transplantation, renal imaging, and women's health. A continuous pool of quality applicants to this training program; our large and highly ranked Division of Nephrology and Hypertension (41 faculty); our stable Nephrology and Hypertension clinical training program (four per year in our 3 year Nephrology program and 2 per year in our Transplant Program), and a large pool of independently funded investigators within the program all support a constant supply of qualified applicants and justify maintenance of our current postdoctoral slots. Large NIH-funded centers and programs in hypertensive renal injury, urinary stone disease, and cystic kidney disease housed in the Division all support a rich training environment. With the addition of Dr. Michael Romero as Associate Director we will continue to build a strong pipeline from promising undergraduate to graduate students to postdoctoral researchers. Importantly, Dr. Romero is PI of our highly successful Nephrology Urology-Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (nuSURF) Program. Mayo Clinic has a rich history of translational research and thus attracts a pool of both postdoctoral fellows as well as predoctoral students interested in biomedical research to these programs in the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (MCGSBS), another key resource for this Training Program. Over the last 2 decades, 19/22 trainees remain active in in biomedical sciences that benefitted from and are directly related to their time on the training grant, 3 are still in training elsewhere, 13 hold academic positions, 2 are employed in biotech, including one as co-founder and CEO of a successful company. Five trainee graduates have achieved NIH funding to date. The cumulative publication track record of our trainees has likewise been strong over this time period (mean 22, median 9, IQR 4-14, publications per trainee). Therefore, over the last 2 decades the Training Grant has continued to fulfill its mission of helping to prepare the next generation of biomedical researchers. Overall, this highly established training program remains creative, innovative, and dynamic, thereby continuing to be highly successful in achieving its goal of training individuals for academic careers in kidney disease research.
Developing the next generation of physicians and scientists is essential for the successful pursuit of new treatments for kidney diseases; this postdoctoral training grant will assist in achieving this goal.
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