The goal of the Biophysics Training Program (BTP) at Yale is to equip pre-doctoral trainees with the practical skills and intellectual development necessary to perform a lifetime of research with impact across a range of vital, biomedical topics. These topics are rooted in the interests of a set of faculty linking the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry (MB&B). Our 33 trainers are joined by a shared fascination in developing biological insights at the molecular level with particular attention to structure, energy and dynamics. The milieus under which insights are developed range from synthetic model systems to whole animal studies with published cross talk that spans this range. Our students benefit from world-class expertise in structural biology, optical and magnetic spectroscopies, physical chemistry, computational chemistry and cryo-electron microscopy. The structure of our program and the skills of our Mentors develop in our students rigor, independence and creativity. We aspire and succeed in producing adventurous graduates who push at the frontiers of Biophysics to become the next generation of leaders in their fields. The importance of biophysics to biomedical research has grown and become increasingly dynamic. This is evident at Yale and specifically in this proposal by our greatly increased number of faculty mentors who also hold appointments in, for example, Pathology, Genetics, Pharmacology, Physics, Mechanical and Chemical Engineering. Admissions of trainees to the MB&B Department now take place through a newly formed umbrella cross-departmental track, the Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology (BBSB). This track was forged in recognition of the presence of Biophysical excellence among mentors in many departments and has greatly increased our student pool. The pool of trainees coming to the two departments of this program have backgrounds that span biology, biochemistry, molecular biology, synthetic and physical chemistry, physics and mathematics. Students fulfill curricular requirements in their first year and perform three lab rotations. These requirements are augmented with qualifying exams that compel a student to independently define a research project and defend it orally to a faculty panel. The dissertation is then given oversight by a committee of three faculty mentors who hold regular formal meetings with the trainee. We propose support for our students in their second and/or third year of graduate school after the dissertation focus becomes clear. The BTP establishes programmatic identity and greatly facilitates interactions between the two departments by several routes. This includes shared curriculum elements, rotations and joint activities such as monthly student research talks, hosting of visiting eminent speakers and a newly established retreat/symposium. These provisions, combined with the strong intellectual and material resources of the trainers, enable the BTP to produce world-class graduates.
The Biophysics Training Program (BTP) at Yale University supports the interdisciplinary education and training of the next generation of biophysical scientists. Such an undertaking provides many avenues for innovation in modern medicine enabling our graduates to make contributions affecting, for example, the combatting of infectious disease, diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and prevention of degenerative disorders of neurons, muscles and glands. In addition, many of our graduates dedicate themselves to tool building, pushing technological boundaries so as to facilitate research across all of the biomedical sciences.
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