The Scholar will spend at least 75 percent of his/her effort in sickle cell anemia-related research under theleadership of Dr. Luban, an established clinical investigator who also directs faculty training and mentorship atCNMC. Dr. Luban in conjunction with the physicians and scientist of WACSCC will develop a carefullyplanned, individualized research training program designed to ensure that the Scholar becomes anindependent physician and/or biomedical researcher focused on critical translational and clinical questionsrelated to sickle cell disease. An individualized career development plan (ICDP) (Appendix A) will bedeveloped for the Sickle Cell Scholar and will encompass three major components: core curriculum, laboratorytraining and translational applications in the clinical setting.The first component is formal course work including a variety of disciplines: statistics, epidemiology, clinicaltrial design, regulatory aspects of clinical investigation, research ethics, scientific tools of clinical investigation,analytical techniques in clinical investigation, and principles and techniques of biochemistry, molecular biologyand molecular genetics. These courses will be provided through the HU (RR010284) and CNMC (RR020359)Clinical Research Centers and the HU Research Scientist Program (R25HL003679) augmented by our jointK30 and associated T32 and K12 programs and by course work at HUSM and CNMC, local universities andthrough selected programs at NIHThe second component provides a highly structured laboratory training program that is designed toprovide practical training in biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics and analytic techniques, and in theanalysis of clinical and laboratory data that results from bench investigations and clinical investigationimplemented at the WACSCC collaborative laboratories and GCRCs. Physician scientists and epidemiologicresearchers with interests in health care disparities and care delivery will engage in programs designed tolearn methodological approaches to data- based investigations and quantitative research.The third component consists of developing and conducting a clinical project in sickle cell disease.The scholar will design, implement and participate in the conduct of a mentored clinical research project. Thispart of Scholar's training will ensure that he/she develops the training needed to conduct multidisciplinaryclinical research, recognize the difficulties in such studies and develop tools to ensure future success as aclinical researcher or collaborative biomedical researcher.The ultimate goal of the Sickle Cell Scholar program is to inspire young and/or new investigators to devotetheir career to innovative and productive research that will lead to decreasing the disease burden and stigmataof this disease.
