Five basic science and engineering departments at UAB propose an interdisciplinary nanobiotechnology program at the interfaces of physics, chemistry, materials science, physiology, and biomedical engineering with a goal of reducing the time from discovery of a new nanotechnology tool or material to its application in medical devices, tissue engineering and biosensors. The trainees will be directly recruited in to the five participating graduate programs and will attend common interdisciplinary core courses, special-skills workshops, and a semester-long internship at the industrial and national lab sites. Areas for training include nanostructured biomaterials for dental, orthopedic, and cardiovascular implants, bioreactors for nanostructured scaffolds for tissue engineering, cell biology on nanoscale materials, and optical nanobiosensors. We request support for four predoctoral trainnes and one postdocdoctoral training for a five year period. The predoctoral training will be for a three year period while the postdoctoral training will be for a two year period. The participants in this program would have access to the state of the art nanotechnology tools and facilities to design materials and biosensors for disease detection, management, and prevention Our recruitment and retention goal is to achieve 20% minority participation in this training grant through partnerships with minority serving institutions. The graduate students advisory committee will consist of faculty from the participating departments and a clinical faculty member to advise student on the clinical relevance of nanotechnology research projects. This program will have an external advisory board with members representing nanotechnology constituents and will conduct a biannual external assessment. UAB administration is allocating resources to build, sustain and institutionalize this interdisciplinary training program through stipend supplements and administrative support to carry out a national recruitment to attract the best-qualified trainees to this emerging field of nanobiotechnology. Relevance: This training program would produce a highly skilled workforce that will apply nanotechnology to biomedical implants, biosensors for early diagnostics of diseases and regenrative medicine. Nanotechnology approaches will impove the longevity and function of biomedical implants and improve human health.
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