This is an application for the renewal of the T32 award (DK07734) that has supported the doctoral program in Nutrition and Health Sciences (NHS) at Emory University since 1996. The training grant has been critical for the stability and development of the NHS program and has supported 4 students per year. To date, we have trained 78 doctoral students of which, 41 completed their PhD degree, 6 received a MS degree, 4 transferred and 2 withdrew; 26 students are currently enrolled in good standing. The NHS program has been highly successful. Our trainees have won numerous awards and fellowships, have presented their work at national and international meetings, and have an outstanding publication record in front-line journals. Graduates pursue research careers in academia or public health agencies such as CDC and are on their way to becoming leaders in the field of nutrition science. The complexities of the field of nutrition make the training of students in nutrition research particularly challenging. Our students must acquire depth in key specialized areas, while learning how to function at the interfaces among many disciplines that are changing rapidly. The NHS program is a superb model for such interdisciplinary training. Our program offers rigorous interdisciplinary training that spans the spectrum from basic sciences through clinical and translational research to public health, providing students with the necessary skills to investigate the relationship between nutrition and human health, including the prevention and control of nutrition-related disorders of national and global concern. The multidisciplinary NHS program faculty come from across the university (primarily the Schools of Medicine and Public Health) and Atlanta based institutions, namely the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Cancer Society and CARE International. The program director, Usha Ramakrishnan, PhD, is an expert in maternal and child nutrition and has been a leader in the program since 1996. The program has strong internal leadership and strong support from university leadership who recognize its contributions toward training the next generation of nutrition scientists. We admit 5-8 students/year, of which 4-5 are grant eligible. The applicant pool of grant eligible students has been ~22 students/ year; an increasing proportion has some training in nutrition and/or a Masters degree upon entry. The program has also recruited strong new faculty with major interests in nutrition-oriented research. Given the productivity of our trainees, the strength of our faculty, and the unique opportunities for collaborative research in Atlanta, we request support for 6 training slots per year to further enhance and strengthen our graduate nutrition training program.
This is a competing continuation application for renewal of the T32 award (DK07734) that has supported the doctoral program in Nutrition and Health Sciences (NHS) at Emory University since 1996. Continued support for 6 pre-doctoral training slots per year will further enhance and strengthen our successful interdisciplinary graduate nutrition training program.
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