This is a competitive renewal of a productive training program specializing in molecular toxicology and environmental disease. The long-term objective is to expertly prepare pre- and post-doctoral trainees for careers in biomedical research with an environmental health perspective. The 17-year success of this program is rooted in the continuous internal assessment of our program by the training faculty to assure the contemporary preparation of the trainees. Recent newly developed pre- and post-doctoral trainee training elements have arisen from the existing long-term partnership with the closely allied P30 Center for Research on Environmental Disease (CRED) and its recent establishment of The Environmental Health Research Career Development Program (EHRCDP). This program targeted to provide trainees and investigators with training and research resources to enhance collaborative environmental science research that integrates basic science approaches with that of clinical and/or population based research. The distinctive interdisciplinary vision of toxicology training program is strongly supported by the 17 participating faculty from three different basic science departments with research focused in one of three broad areas: mechanisms of environmental carcinogenesis;early life exposures &endocrine disruption;and diet, energy balance and environmental disease risk. The faculty has an outstanding history of collaboration and sharing of resources and laboratories that are well equipped with instrumentation for mechanistic cellular and molecular research. Predoctoral trainees are evaluated for admission into the training program on the basis of GPA (pound3.2), GRE score (pound1200, V &Q, pound1800, V, Q &A), letters of recommendation, and previous research experience. Trainees from various interdisciplinary departments will all participate in a core academic program in toxicology, ethics and communication skills for scientists. Evaluation of postdoctoral candidates is based upon the quality of their dissertation research and productivity, letters of recommendation, and a short proposal of the trainee's anticipated research project. Postdoctoral trainees are required to attend core professional development activities and ethics training. Trainee progress is formally monitored by the directors and program advisory board via observation of student led seminars, coursework and a formal annual report on research progress. Taken together, the successful track record of our training program, the clear demand for our graduates, the demonstrated institutional commitment to the toxicology program via resources provided by The University of Texas at Austin, the CMCT and the CRED (combined 5 year total support of $307,195) coalesce to create an ideal setting for preparing pre-and post-doctoral students to address challenging contemporary research problems in molecular toxicology and environmental disease.
There is a continuing need for scientists trained for careers in environmental health. This training program is designed to prepare both pre- and postdoctoral students for careers that address the molecular and cellular mechanisms by which environmental agents instigate toxicity and disease by providing an infrastructure and an interactive environment that facilitates their training scientists to test cutting edge hypotheses in integrative translational research on environmental disease.
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