Pathobiology of Digestive Disease is a program with 20 years of experience in training predoctoral and postdoctoral scientists to work as partners with physicians in """"""""bench to bedside"""""""" translational research on digestive diseases. To achieve this goal, we educate basic and clinical scientists on each other's language, experimental approaches, and the major questions in their field through shared didactic courses, journal club, grand rounds, and seminars. Our core Pathobiology course, co-directed by a physician-scientist and basic scientist, teaches our trainees 1) how scientific discovery has influenced clinical practice and how clinical observation has affected scientific hypotheses, 2) to critically evaluate current knowledge about diseases, and 3) to use clinical problems as a starting point for hypothesis- driven research. The program is led by Laura Liscum, PhD, Professor of Physiology, and funds 5 predoctoral and 4 postdoctoral trainees. Training is supervised by 21 preceptors, who are associated with the Departments of Physiology and Molecular Biology &Microbiology at Tufts University School of Medicine as well as the Department of Medicine at Tufts-New England Medical Center. Faculty members are basic scientists and physician-scientists who bridge the gap between basic cell biology and digestive disease. Their work focuses on intracellular trafficking in the liver, pancreas, intestine and kidney;cellular growth and tissue development;colon and liver cancer, and breast cancer metastasis to liver;and intestinal pathogens. Our preceptors are strongly committed to education, have experience interweaving basic and clinical sciences, and direct active, well funded research programs that address the pathobiology of digestive diseases. Our training program is enhanced by the Center for Gastroenterology Research on Absorptive and Secretory Processes (GRASP), a Silvio O. Conte Digestive Diseases Core Research Center, which promotes basic research on the normal function and diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and liver at Tufts and plays an integral role in the Pathobiology training program.
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