The Hematology Research Training Program at the University of Washington is designed to provide intensive post-doctoral research training in investigative hematology. Although the program emphasizes cell and molecular biology, and has well-established strengths in stem cells, hematopoiesis, cell and gene therapy, platelets and hemostasis, the pathogenesis of hematologic malignancies, and hematopoietic cell transplantation; clinical research and outcomes investigation are also supported and encouraged. Program faculty include established investigators with strong independent research programs from both basic science and clinical departments of the University of Washington. The faculty is based at the University of Washington campuses, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, BloodWorks NW, Harborview Medical Center, the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, and Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute. The goal of the training program is to develop the research, presentation, and grant-writing skills that trainees will need to establish independent research careers, and to train future leaders in research hematology. Trainees have MD, MD/PhD or PhD degrees. Many have completed clinical fellowship training in hematology, but others are basic researchers wishing to work in the field. Trainees are chosen through an application process and interviews with program faculty. They obtain research experience by working with a mentor, and gain skills in laboratory and/or clinical investigation, data analysis, publishing papers, presentation, and acquiring independent grant support. Bidirectional translational projects (bench to bedside and bedside to bench) are encouraged. Trainees typically receive two years of funding from the T32 program, but often continue their training longer under separate funding mechanisms, including K12, K23, K08 or K99R00 grants and foundation support. Training progress is monitored by the faculty mentor, a separate faculty advisor, the Program Directors, and the Division of Hematology faculty through regular research presentations, meetings with each trainee, and written evaluations. Each six months, trainees update their individual development plan (IDP) and formally present their research progress and career goals to a Research Oversight Committee (ROC) consisting of the trainee's mentors and the T32 PI. 100% and 83% of trainees who completed our program over the past 5 and 10 years, respectively, have academic medicine or industry research careers. Strengths of the program include: the diverse research opportunities, a qualified prominent senior faculty, the inclusion and mentorship of talented junior faculty, the structured mentorship of trainees, the inclusion of under-represented minority trainees, strong and varied didactic sessions, and a long track record spanning over five decades of training graduates that subsequently obtain academic (or industry) research positions and become independent, distinguished investigators and thought-leaders throughout hematology.
There continues to be a need for rigorous scientists, and especially physician-scientists, in the field of hematology, since this discipline is at the forefront of translational investigation and modern medicine. This grant will support the training of hematology researchers at a critical time in their careers - the transition from post- doctoral fellow to independent investigator - and develop scientists that will advance hematology and health care in the USA.
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