This revised competing renewal application for training grant T32 DK07126 requests continued support for the post-doctoral training (up to 3 years) of four board-eligible or board-certified internists and basic scientists (MD, PhD or MD/PhD) for careers as independent investigators committed to studying kidney disease. The Renal Division at Washington University (WU) has maintained an active and formally organized fellowship program since 1956. The purpose of this training effort is the preparation of carefully selected candidates for full time careers in academic medicine. In the course of our training program we provide highly-motivated carefully-selected individuals with in-depth experience and direction in the philosophy, methodology, and details of execution of controlled investigations in areas related to renal function in health and disease. WU offers a resource-rich environment. Interaction between individuals based in clinical and basic departments occurs as a matter of routine through their common association with the multidisciplinary Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences and Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences. Patient-based investigation is facilitated by participation in and access to the clinical practice at WU and Barnes Jewish Hospital (BJH) and St. Louis Children's Hospital (SLCH). The WU Renal Division owns, operates and staffs four outpatient dialysis facilities. The kidney transplant program at WU/BJH is one of the oldest in the USA. The WU George M. O'Brien Center for Kidney Disease Research provides core services to support a wide range of research endeavors including organ culture and transplantation (organogenesis);provides expertise and advice for investigators wishing to study diverse aspects of renal development, function and disease;generates non-genetic (injury) models of kidney disease in mice and rats;generates transgenic and knockout mice for the study of genes involved in renal development, function, and disease;provides a battery of renal chemistry assays of blood and urine to aid in the analysis of animal models of genetic and acquired kidney diseases;provides equipment and support for analyzing renal development, morphology and histopathology by fluorescence, light, and transmission electron microscopy;maintains a repository of kidneys from animal models of kidney disease;and a repository of curated kidney patient serum, DNA and tissues. Its administrative core supports a series of topical conferences by internationally recognized scientists relating to developmental biology published in the journal Organogenesis. Continued interdisciplinary training of young internists and basic scientists in state-of-the-art approaches to the analysis and cure of kidney diseases is consistent with the longstanding commitment of WU School of Medicine to provide leadership in biomedical investigation. Twenty-five individuals who trained in Nephrology at WU have gone on to head Renal Divisions in the United States and abroad. The WU Renal Division has a longstanding commitment to train individuals from minority groups and several are longstanding members of its faculty.
The incidence and prevalence of kidney disease is increasing yearly in the United States. The training of individuals well versed in all aspects of renal scienc is essential to maintaining the public health in terms of reducing the incidence and prevalence and limiting the morbidity and mortality of renal diseases
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