This is a revised competitive renewal application for an institutional T32, Interdisciplinary Training Program in Lung Disease, submitted under a multiple PI plan that provides the opportunity for exceptional postdoctoral trainees to acquire state-of-the-art knowledge and research skills needed to conduct independent investigation in the pathogenesis and treatment of lung diseases. Centered in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine at Duke University, the program is founded on a combined basic and translational science approach and includes both senior and junior faculty preceptors (mentors) from the Departments of Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Immunology, Medicine, Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Pathology, Pediatrics, Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, and Surgery. For 30 years, the program has been highly successful in placing trainees in academic centers with strong pulmonary research programs and in recruiting minority trainees. The structure of the training program remains intact with three major research training tracks, but it has undergone several changes since the last submission including new program leadership under Drs. Piantadosi and Hogan as well as the recruitment of several new faculty members with expertise in lung development, stem cell biology, asthma, transplant immunology and genetics/genomics. The three major research tracks available to trainees include: Molecular Biology and Cell Signaling in Cardiopulmonary Injury (Track I); Lung Development, Repair, and Regeneration (Track II); and Pulmonary Immunology, Human Genetics, and Lung Disease (Track III). The training program has previously supported 8 postdoctoral (M.D. and/or Ph.D.) trainees annually, but in order to improve our focus and the attention to the needs of each trainee, we are requesting support for two fewer positions (total of 6/year). With the new multiple PI plan, the highly-committed and experienced research track leaders, and the minimization of clinical obligations during the two years of research training, we will provide especially close faculty supervision of the trainees' research progress. Each trainee must establish a mentorship committee comprised of the preceptor plus at least one basic, one clinician-scientist and one junior mentor to guide their progress and to promote their career development well into the junior faculty years. Each trainee also participates in a structured didactic training program that includes formal teaching sessions, weekly divisional and work-in-progress seminars, lectures from distinguished invited speakers, and University course work designed to expand and deepen the their scientific backgrounds. Our goal is to continue to successfully train the next generation of pulmonary scientists by providing each trainee with the research skills necessary to build independent academic careers and to compete for independent research funding in a highly competitive environment.
This is a competitive renewal application for a multidisciplinary T32 training grant in lung disease now in its 29th year. The purpose of the program is to support the recruitment and research training of the most promising M.D. and Ph.D. post-doctoral fellows in lung disease in order to help assure the continuity of highly-qualified, collaborative young scientists who can ably translate new understanding in basic science into the clinical sphere and rapidly advance the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of human lung diseases.
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