Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. There is an ongoing need to provide multidisciplinary training for physician and PhD investigators who will devote a significant component of their professional activity to understanding the pathophysiology and treatment of cardiovascular disease. This is the 6th renewal application for the University of Utah (UofU) Cardiovascular Research Training Program. Since its inception in 1984, this program has trained 112 individuals who have largely gone on to pursue research careers. During the last training period (2010-2015), this training grant supported 24 post-doctoral research trainees (8 MD/DOs, 1 MD/PhD, 15 PhDs) who all remain active at academic institutions. Our trainees have authored 157 publications, with an average of 2 first-author publications each. They have also received several grants and career development awards (e.g. NIH, American Heart Association). This program continues to build on our unique strengths in cardiovascular research at the UofU, spanning basic and mechanistic investigation across a range of model systems and translational studies in humans. This training program unifies the three major cardiovascular research centers at the UofU Health Sciences Center: The Molecular Medicine Program at the Eccles Institute of Human Genetics, Heart Failure and Regeneration Initiatives in the Divisions of Cardiovascular Medicine at the School of Medicine, and the Nora Eccles Harrison Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute that specializes in cardiac electrophysiology and ion transport. This training program spans 10 UofU departments and includes 33 well-funded faculty mentors who lead exciting and productive cardiovascular research programs. Each trainee will participate in a two-year training program that includes a research project with a multidisciplinary mentoring committee, didactic coursework, and professional development opportunities. With this renewal application, we continue to request support to prepare 8 postdoctoral trainees to be leaders in cardiovascular research. The next stage of the training program will utilize an expanded mentor pool and implement a dual-leadership structure (MPIs: Dean Li, MD, PhD, and Mike Sanguinetti, PhD), as well as new program activities to prepare our trainees for careers in cardiovascular research. The next five years of the training program will leverage new resources and opportunities at the UofU and represents a new era of interdisciplinary collaborative cardiovascular research at our institution.
The need for well-trained investigators in the field of cardiovascular medicine is the justification for this program's existence and continuation. There are too few rigorously-trained cardiovascular investigators to take advantage of today's enormous growth in genetics, imaging, and technological advances. Since this program was first funded in 1984, the University of Utah has successfully trained over 100 cardiovascular investigators and is well-equipped to continue this success.
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