The overall objective of this competitive renewal application is to sustain an effective Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health Research (BIRCWH) Scholars Program, whose mission is to identify and train junior faculty members within the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine (COM) and the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). The 2 institutions are located across the street from each other and share faculty, with all CCHMC faculty having appointments at UC. The 2 institutions also share a common NIH Institutional Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) funded in April 2009. The academic home for the CTSA is the Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training (CCTST). Our first BIRCWH award was based in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, but we trained Scholars from many departments, including Internal Medicine, Psychiatry, Surgery, Cell Biology and Pediatrics. Thus, for the renewal, we will house the BIRCWH K12 program in the CCTST, through which BIRCWH K12 scholars will have access to administrative support and a vast array of research resources, including study design, database management, data analysis, pilot funding, research education, and regulatory support;the CCTST also runs the CTSA KL2 Research Scholars program and has a very successful K23 preparation process. Our BIRCWH program has established a track record of developing junior faculty in the area of women's health. The first 3 Scholars who graduated were recruited to full-time faculty positions - 1 at University of Texas - Southwestern, 1 at UCLA, and 1 at UC's Department of Environmental Health;all 3 are independently funded. The BIRCWH renewal application focuses in 6 main areas: cancer, developmental biology, pharmacology/pharmacogenetics, reproductive health, adolescent gynecology, and behavioral medicine. As with the first BIRCWH, we plan to train 4 scholars at a time: 2 MDs and 2 PhDs. Scholars will have 3 years of protected time for mentored research and career development. We have assembled a cadre of mentors who have at least $250,000 of funding;a track record of mentoring in women's health, and their own protected time for mentorship. We also plan to institute a Mentor-in-Training program for mid- career faculty who are beginning to mentor others.
Nationally, there is a major unmet need for training clinical and basic science trainees and faculty to conduct research in women's health. Through mentored research and coursework, the Cincinnati BIRCWH K12 program will continue to train leaders in women's health research.
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