In this renewal application of an established (38 years), successful multidisciplinary training program in Digestive Diseases, we will continue to train qualified postdoctoral individuals (M.D., and/or Ph.D.) for academic careers in digestive diseases. Our interdisciplinary, full time faculty of 40 scientists supports two tracks for potentil trainees: i) basic/disease oriented research;and ii) patient-oriented research. The basic/disease oriented tract remains one of long-standing excellence with training opportunities in cancer cell biology, enteric neurosciences, liver pathobiology, and new opportunities organized around regenerative medicine/stem cells and transcription/epigenetics. Training in this track is strongly supported through interactions with the NIH funded Mayo Comprehensive Cancer Center, Basic Science Departments at Mayo Clinic, and the newly acquired NIH P30 Digestive Disease Center grant. The patient-oriented tract, which is educationally buttressed through the Mayo Center for Translational Science Activities (CTSA), maintains training opportunities in human genetics/epidemiology, obesity/nutrition, human imaging/physiology, and a newly developed track in the science of healthcare delivery/comparative effectiveness, the latter being a new area of institutional focus. The initiative in obesity/nutrition proposed in the last renewal has been remarkably successful with 3 new trainees in this track. We continue to request support for 5 postdoctoral trainees/year that are selected through objective and consensus-driven mechanisms from a talented annual pool of approximately 75 M.D., PhD, or M.D./PhD candidates derived from a variety of clinical and basic disciplines. The overall success of the program continues to be outstanding with 65% of trainees from the most recently completed 10-year cohort (n=23) entering into an academic medicine staff appointment and a funding portfolio from this cohort that includes 16 new federal grants (5 K series, 9 R series, 2 P30 pilots). Our aggressive recruitment of both female and underrepresented minority candidates also continues, with 50% of the trainees from female (38%) or minority groups (12%) during the last 10 years. Institutional support also continues to be strong and well documented. Thus, 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 gastroenterology and hepatology.
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