The overarching objective of the University of California Davis (UC Davis) """"""""Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health"""""""" (BIRCWH) Program is to provide junior faculty with state-of-the-art multidisciplinary training that will ensure their establishment of independent biomedical research careers in areas relevant to women's health. A second objective of this program is to create an environment that nurtures non-traditional cross-disciplinary collaborations in focused and interactive research areas essential to improving the health of women. The UC Davis BIRCWH Program will focus on four interacting areas: (1) neuroscience and neurodegenerative diseases and their disproportionate impact on females, (2) metabolic and nutrition-related syndromes and their repercussions on women, (3) cardiovascular science and its relationship to gender, and (4) lifespan biology and transitions, such as early development, adolescence, and menopause, that bring unique risks to females. We have chosen these areas because a greater understanding of them will greatly improve women's health, and UC Davis has a large core of highly successful senior faculty in these focused areas. There is much overlap in the underlying processes addressed in these focus areas; therefore, Scholars will gain in depth broad cross disciplinary training and, upon completion of the BIRCWH Program, will be uniquely positioned to attack critical questions in women's health research. We will support research career development through a four-pronged research and training experience. Key components include: (1) mentored research experience; (2) core curriculum, (3) additional didactic curriculum, and (4) additional focused activities, which will broaden the experience of IWHR Scholars and emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary women's health research, including Women's Health Grand Rounds, journal clubs, an annual symposium and the Women in Medicine and Life Sciences Seminar Series. Together, Scholars will receive a balanced experience of basic, translational, and clinical experiences to help them develop fundable research programs. The mentoring program will deepen the research experience of promising junior faculty and provide opportunities to initiate non-traditional crossdisciplinary collaborations among the laboratories of the IWHR Scholars and the mentors. This combination will optimize the chances that Scholars will develop fundable research programs to better women's health.
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