The proposed program, """"""""Biomedical Research Training in Aging,"""""""" represents a five-year continuation (-21 to -25) of the current award, which was originally funded in 1985 and is supported until April 30, 2005. Funds to support 10 predoctoral and 6 postdoctoral trainees are requested. This Training Program constitutes part of a larger Institute of Gerontology (loG) Research Training Program, with about 45% female and 22% members of under-represented racial/ethnic groups. The principal goal of the Training Program is to select, train and prepare both graduate students and postdoctoral fellows for careers as leaders in biomedically oriented gerontological research. An important underlying theme of the Training Program is the importance and power of collaborative research programs in the biology of aging and understanding the broadly interdisciplinary nature of the field of gerontology as a whole. The Training Program involves 21 well-funded faculty members from 17 different departments and units on campus. The principal activity of each trainee is the development of a faculty-supervised research project. One of the defining features of our Training Program is the intensity of training faculty collaboration and the consequent team mentorship provided to our trainees. Another important principle of our Training Program is the desire for all of our trainees to receive a solid grounding in some biomedical discipline in addition to the emphasis on understanding their research problem in the context of the overall biology of aging. Important group aspects of our Training Program are monthly trainee meetings, a weekly interdisciplinary seminar series, an annual joint poster session with the loG at Wayne State University and the Michigan Alzheimer's Disease Research consortium, trainee attendance and presentations at relevant scientific meetings and participation in formal research responsibility programs at both the University and loG levels. Predoctoral trainees are admitted to graduate studies through individual departmental programs or the common admissions program in the Medical School and are admitted to this Training Program after they have completed preliminary examinations administered by their academic departments and have attained candidacy. Postdoctoral trainees must have satisfactorily completed all requirements for a doctoral degree and have demonstrated outstanding potential to conduct research with an loG Training Program faculty member. The training resources and facilities available through both the loG and the University are outstanding. These include the laboratories within the 21,000 sq ft loG itself, as well as a large series of University-supported computer and technical core facilities and libraries. ? ?
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