Our training program brings together twenty-two faculty members from eight Departments to focus on two areas of broad importance for hematology and human disease: vascular biology and stem cell biology/hematologic malignancy. The primary goal is to train M.D. and Ph.D. scientists in a multi-disciplinary environment to do sustained, independent research in hematology. Two predoctoral positions are requested that will be filled from an outstanding pool of Ph.D. and M.D.-Ph.D. students in the well-established graduate programs at the University of Wisconsin (UW). Four postdoctoral positions are requested to train research track candidates from participating clinical (Medicine, Pediatrics) and basic science (Biomedical Engineering, Biomolecular Chemistry, Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Medical Microbiology & Immunology, Oncology, and Pathology) departments. The highly interactive training faculty cluster into three interest groups: vascular biology/inflammation; immune regulation, hematopoietic development/malignancy; and stem cell biology/bone marrow transplantation. Expertise in vascular biology includes microfluidics, proteomics, cellular migration, extracellular matrix biology, cellular mechanisms of inflammation, eosinophil biology, modeling of blood vessels and cell migration, molecular aspects of hemostasis and thrombophilic states. Hematologic malignancy/stem cell biology is led by a prominent group of stem cell investigators. Expertise includes embryonic (ES), induced pluripotent (iPSC) and mesenchymal stem cell biology, epigenetic regulation of normal and abnormal hematopoietic differentiation; intracellular signaling in hematopoiesis, leukemogenesis, and lymphocytes; immunotherapy of myeloma, tumor immunology, preclinical models of allogeneic bone marrow transplant; clinical trials and bone marrow imaging, and clinical applications of stem cells. Training opportunities span basic and clinical investigation; including cutting-edge technologies in genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, microfluidics, zebrafish and murine disease models, and stem cell transplantation. A strong emphasis is placed on translational research and multidisciplinary training of clinical investigators. The UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research offers didactic and degree programs in clinical investigation, career development, and mentoring expertise. Our trainees have an excellent record of establishing research careers. Fifteen predoctoral appointees have now completed their Ph.D. degrees. Seven are in academic faculty or scientist positions, three are industry scientists, two are completing advanced subspecialty clinical training, one is a chemistry professor at a teaching college. Twenty-four post-doctoral trainees have completed their appointments on the grant in the past fifteen years. These trainees include eleven assistant professors, two associate professors, three academic scientists, two industry scientists, and two completing training. The large pool of qualified candidates, outstanding mentorship record of our trainers, institutional commitment, and broad range of scientific expertise all contribute to successful careers in science for our trainees.
The training of future researchers in hematology is tremendously important to the development of the next generation of treatments for blood diseases. This training grant is especially important for training physicians and scientists that will study clinical problems related to bleeding, abnormal blood clot formation (deep vein clots, heart attacks, and strokes), low blood counts, immune therapy of blood-based cancers and stem-cell based therapies.
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