The Molecular Biophysics Training Grant has nucleated the biophysics community on the UCSD campus for over 20 years. Our primary goal is to provide a rigorous, dynamic, and strongly interdisciplinary training program for graduate students from the Physical Sciences Departments of Chemistry/Biochemistry and Physics and the Health Sciences Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (SSPPS) and Pharmacology. Broad research opportunities are provided by 36 training faculty from the Physical Sciences Departments of Chemistry & Biochemistry (23 faculty) and Physics (3 faculty) and from the BMS graduate program SSPPS and Department of Pharmacology (7 faculty), and other Health Sciences departments (3 faculty). Since the last renewal, the number of training has increased from 30 to 36 and includes nine new assistant professors who strengthen our existing expertise and also bring new disciplines central to our training mission such as cryo electron microscopy and cellular imaging. The MBTG also provides an immediate academic home for these new faculty that extends beyond the boundaries of their home department/school. Trainees are typically supported for two years, beginning in their second year after completing rotations in at least three laboratories. The training program consists of 1) Laboratory rotations, 2) Graduate courses, 3) Teaching experience, 4) Monthly Tuesday evening student seminars, 5) Invited seminar speakers, 6) Yearly MBTG retreat, 7) MBTG journal club, 8) Individual Development Plan (IDP), 9) Individual mentoring and career guidance and 10) Hands-on instrument training. The graduate courses expose students to biophysical approaches to important biomedical problems as well as quantitative and theoretical tools. The monthly student seminars are highly interactive discussions, which often catalyze future collaborations. Prominent national/international seminar speakers are invited and hosted by the students. A key feature of the training is one-on-one mentoring facilitated by the MBTG program-specific IDP, and followed-up with career mentoring by successful biophysicists in academia, industry and research institutes. The Steering Committee also hosts an annual lunch to introduce the new appointees, to hear progress of trainees and to discuss programmatic goals. Additional activities include hands on experience in instrumentation and travel to conferences. The Steering Committee is comprised of the Co-PI's E. Komives (Chem/Biochem) and T. Handel (SSPPS) as well as S. Taylor (Pharmacology and Chem/Biochem), J.A. McCammon (Chem/Biochem and Pharmacology), O. Dudko (Physics), and J. Kim (Chem/Biochem). Funding for twelve trainees is requested for the next award period, which UCSD will supplement with three matching Diversity Fellowships per year. We also plan to establish a Specialization in Molecular Biophysics/Structural Biology so that students can designate their affiliation with this program on their degree.
The Molecular Biophysics Training Grant (MBTG) at the University of California, San Diego brings together faculty and students from the Physical Sciences and Health Sciences nucleating a campus wide community of Molecular Biophysicists. The MBTG provides a vibrant training program including an emphasis on strong quantitative fundamentals, hands-on training in instrumentation and computational approaches to find solutions to the most pressing problems in Biology and Medicine. Students come from diverse backgrounds and are some of the best and brightest who thrive on the challenge to become the next generation of leaders addressing scientific questions in Molecular Biophysics. The training program is under new leadership and includes an interdisciplinary curriculum, student mentoring and program activities to prepare the students for careers in Molecular Biophysics research and education.
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