This application is the fifth competing renewal of the sole training grant supporting the Integrative Molecular and Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program (IMBS) at Baylor College of Medicine. The IMBS Program was funded on a commitment to excellence in research, with strict guidelines for both student and faculty participation in the program. The Program currently involves 106 participating faculty from multiple institutions throughout the Texas Medical Center. This dynamic mix of established investigators and newly recruited young faculty with diverse research interests allows IMBS students to train with world-class scientists and select from a wide spectrum of exciting research possibilities. During the 24 years of funding, 250 students have entered the program, with 80 students currently enrolled. Of the 170 trainees who have left the Program, 122 received their Ph.D., 17 received Master's degrees, and 31 withdrew or transferred. We have consistently attracted high caliber students to the Program using active recruitment strategies. Increased institutional support during this funding period has allowed us to increase the entering class size over the past four years from 9 to 16 students per year. We continue to emphasize a rigorous graduate education program, combined with intensive, personalized mentoring throughout all stages of IMBS graduate training. The research productivity of IMBS students has been exceptional, as measured by both the number and quality of student-authored publications. Students who graduated from the Program, between 2009 and 2013, have extremely strong publication records. These 44 students published, on average, 3.4 papers resulting from their thesis research, 1.4 of which were first author papers, with an average impact factor of 8.8 per publication. An additional notable achievement during the last funding period has been our continued success in both recruiting, and retaining, underrepresented minority (URM) students, with 11 URM students (14%) currently enrolled in the program. In addition, our current URM IMBS students include some of the top students in the College with regard to academic achievements. During the previous training period, 10 predoctoral positions were funded through this award. We are requesting an increase to 12 funded positions in the current renewal, based on our established track record of recruiting and training top students who take science leadership positions in academia, industry and government. We plan to maintain an enrolled student body of ~80 students, an optimal size for scientific interactions and mentoring by Program faculty.
The interdisciplinary Integrative Molecular and Biomedical Sciences Program is designed to train the next generation of Ph.D. scientists who will become future independent investigators in academia and industry, and leaders of inter-disciplinary cell and molecular biology research to improve human health. The Program is committed to training a diverse student body with an emphasis on flexible, interdisciplinary, collaborative training in cell and molecular biology. The rigorous, quantitative training prepares Program trainees for research careers that will produce fundamental insights into human health and disease and development of innovative approaches to therapy and disease prevention.
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