This proposal seeks renewal for UCLA's predoctoral Cellular and Molecular Biology Training Program. Now in its 21st year, the program has trained more than 280 Ph.D. candidates for careers in biomedical research and education. The program is interdepartmental, and includes faculty and students in the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, and Microbiology and Molecular Genetics in the College of Letters and Science, the Departments of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Biological Chemistry, and Microbiology and Immunology in the School of Medicine, as well as the Interdepartmental Program in Molecular Biology. There are currently 79 training faculty with primary appointments in 10 departments. Major research areas include biochemistry, cell biology, developmental biology, gene expression, macromolecular structure, molecular and cellular immunology, neurobiology, virology and microbial pathology and plant molecular biology. Trainees are nominated for the program by representatives of each of the seven major Ph.D. programs involved. Students are selected on a highly competitive basis using the criteria of their academic and research achievements. Appointments are made for a maximum period of three years. A small number of students enter the Training Program as first year Ph.D. students; the bulk, however, come in after a year of graduate work when they have chosen their dissertation research director. In addition to meeting the University and Departmental or Program requirements for their degrees, trainees participate in seminars and conferences organized by the Training Program. This proposal requests stipends for 45 me level as presently authorized. The facilities are those of a major undergraduate and graduate campus of 33,000 students that includes a medical school faculty. All of the departments involved in this program are in close proximity to each other and to the interdepartmental Molecular Biology Institute, which facilitates interactions of both students and faculty.
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