Veterinarians are broadly trained health professionals who are uniquely qualified to participate in biomedical research, having an understanding of disease in the context of the whole organism. The One Science, One Health concept, integrating principles and discoveries in both human and veterinary medicine, has received increased attention with new zoonotic outbreaks as well as increasingly common chronic aging conditions.1,2 The NIH Roadmap for Medical Research is designed to open up new opportunities to tackle the multifactorial causes of diseases not yet understood, particularly those associated with a longer lived, aging population with multiple conditions such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes mellitus, autoimmunity, and increased susceptibility to infectious diseases. There is a need to understand the impact of genotype/posttranslational events on these conditions. Increasingly, research progress requires multidisciplinary teams creating novel approaches to understanding disease mechanistically and translating findings into preventative measures and treatments. Veterinary researchers uniquely contribute to all areas of comparative biomedical research, particularly in animal model-based research, which has been expanding to an estimated half of all current NIH research projects. Significant matching funds from Texas A&M University will continue to increase the impact of this T32 program and help alleviate this national shortage. The proposed research program is broadly interdisciplinary, with mentors having significant peer-reviewed funding. These outstanding mentors were chosen from 5 Texas A&M University colleges, and share in common their desire to train veterinarians in basic biomedical research. Research areas include infectious and metabolic diseases, toxicology, nutrition, developmental biology, cancer and neuroscience, giving mentees the broadest possible selection of biomedical research areas, as well as outstanding mentors. In this competitive renewal proposal, we propose to continue providing outstanding mentors and an excellent environment for veterinarians to obtain significant biomedical research experience. The program has enrolled 6 DVMs since the beginning of the program in 2010 and 2 have finished their program, while 4 are still in training. The two trainees who have finished the program obtained PhDs and both are now employed as Assistant Professors at major universities. One has recently obtained a NIH KO8 award. Thus our trainees in this young program have attained an excellent track record to date.
In this competitive training grant renewal proposal, we propose to continue providing outstanding mentors and an excellent environment for veterinarians to obtain significant biomedical research experience. The program has enrolled 6 DVMs since the beginning of the program in 2010 and 2 have finished their program, while 4 are still in training. The two trainees who have finished the program obtained PhDs and both are now employed as Assistant Professors at major universities. One has recently obtained a NIH KO8 award. Thus our trainees in this young program have attained an excellent track record to date.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 32 publications
