The Third Coast HIV-related Cardiovascular and Sleep Disorders K12 Career Development Program (TC- CSK12) is a collaboration between the University of Chicago and Northwestern University that will establish an interdisciplinary pathway to academic productivity for the next generation of physician and non-physician junior faculty scientists. Mentored by world-class experts, tailored and individualized curricula most relevant to productivity provided by both program mentors and resource faculty will support trainees' projects in two high priority research topic areas in HIV-related ? cardiovascular disease and sleep disorders. These two areas will be further stratified into one of four high impact pathways: heart failure; coronary artery and other vascular disease; sleep disordered breathing; and circadian disruption and stress. Trainees' mentored research will be foundational for career-long intellectual growth and academic advancement, and will be supported by resources for collaborative scholarship and discovery across a range of scientific disciplines, methods and concepts. TC-CSK12 will also have scientific disciplinary clusters: molecular and cellular; genomics, epigenetics and proteomics clinical and translational; and data science and computational modeling. Didactic and experiential learning across these clusters will be customized with mentoring for each individual trainee's pathway. The research itself, along with mentoring and cross-disciplinary curricula, will enable new insights into the complex mechanisms underlying HIV related cardiovascular and sleep disorders (HIV-CS) and careers that will produce major advances in diagnosis, treatment, monitoring and/or prevention of the disorders targeted in our pathways. The ultimate objective of our program is to identify, inspire, and support development of independent, NHLBI-funded investigators in HIV research with strong and broad methodological and conceptual skills as well as collaboration expertise/enthusiasm. Training, mentorship and career development strategies will draw upon several successful programs many of which are already shared across NU and UC and set a strong precedent for TC-CSK12: the integrated Third Coast Center for AIDS Research, two successful and collaborative CTSAs, and other successful K12 and NIH-funded training programs at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University including a collaboratively held T32 in sleep for the past 20 years. In addition to collaboration-building infrastructure that brings faculty into the study and mentorship of HIV-CS. Trainees and their mentors will draw on our diverse NIH-funded, community-based research cohorts of HIV-infected, -affected, and at-risk persons in one of the largest domestic HIV epicenters in the United States. This ensures that research and training supported by this program will positively impact the most vulnerable populations in years to come as we move towards elimination of both HIV and its complications not yet solved by antiretroviral therapy (ART).
PROGRAM NARRATIVE The Third Coast HIV-related Cardiovascular and Sleep Disorders K12 Career Development Program (TC- CSK12) is a collaboration between the University of Chicago and Northwestern University that will establish mentorship for junior faculty scientists. Mentored by experienced researchers, tailored and individualized curricula most relevant to productivity provided by both program mentors and resource faculty will support trainees' projects in two high priority research topic areas in HIV-related ? cardiovascular disease and sleep disorders. These two areas will be further stratified into one of four high impact pathways: heart failure; coronary artery and other vascular disease; sleep disordered breathing; and circadian disruption and stress.
