This application is to renew the T32 ES-09250-30 training grant entitled, ?Environmental Carcinogenesis and Mutagenesis? (ECM) which has been under the direction of Dr. Stambrook since its inception in 1986. Dr. Alvaro Puga, the Co-PI, has been a mentor in the Program since early in its history and has served as Associate Director for the past five-year budget period, a role in which he will continue. The ECM training program initially focused exclusively on environmental carcinogenesis and mutagenesis as its title implied. Subsequently, the Program has evolved scientifically and conceptually. It grew to its current optimal size when the NIEHS directed that it merge with a smaller training program in toxicology. The Program became scientifically more diverse which has proven invaluable to the trainees. The ECM program makes every effort to retain this breadth of disciplines to enhance cross-fertilization of ideas and techniques between the trainees. Thus, the trainees are able to discuss cogently the impact of environmental exposures in terms of genetics, cell biology and toxicology and ultimately in the context of human disease, including cancer. To preserve this wide range of disciplines, the Program maintains a participating faculty of 26 who derive from 12 different departments/divisions from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine (UCCOM) or the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). There is a very close working relationship between the faculty of these two institutions, and the CCHMC faculty all have appointments in pediatrics at UCCOM. The financial support committed to the ECM from both institutions for recruitment and for other training-related expenses exemplifies this tight relationship and support for the ECM. The ECM continues to build on its past successes, with its graduates populating academic, regulatory and industry leadership positions. It also continues to fulfill a national need to train individuals in the impact of environmental exposure relating to biological, oncological and toxicological endpoints and human disease. Since its inception, the Program has emphasized recruitment of under-represented minorities, and has been successful in this endeavor. Institutionally, the Program brings together the research efforts of several laboratories to provide a common focus on exposure and environmental health, and facilitates collaborations between these laboratories. The ECM encourages trainees to engage in research that combines the expertise of several laboratories and institutional research cores. Our biweekly meetings where trainees alternatively present their own data or a topical paper reinforce these interactions. Pre-doctoral trainees all have the equivalent of an undergraduate major in a chemical, biological or physical science with superior academic achievements. Many have won awards and recognition while in the Program. We select postdoctoral candidates who hold the degrees of Ph.D., D.V.M. or M.D., based on proven academic accomplishments, and like predoctoral fellows, we select trainees from a national pool of applicants. This renewal application requests eight pre-doctoral and four postdoctoral positions, a size that we find optimal for the mission and goals of this Program.
This training program trains predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows in multiple disciplines and state-of-the-art technologies. The intent is to elucidate biological mechanisms that form the basis of diseases, including cancer, that arise as a consequence of exposure to diverse environmental agents. The goal of this training program is to produce leaders in academia, the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries and regulatory agencies who have the experience and knowledge to understand and make informed decisions in the environmental health sciences.
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