This application is to seek support to continue the interdepartmental and interinstitutional graduate and postgraduate Program in Developmental Biology (DB Program) at Baylor College of Medicine. The DB Program was founded on a commitment to excellence in research, with strict guidelines for both students and faculty of the Program 1992. The DB Program has 36 faculty members from seven basic science and three clinical departments, including a balanced mix of full, associate, and assistant professors. It provides students with a wide spectrum of exciting research possibilities. During the 14 years of the DB Program, 74 students have entered the program, 36 students are currently enrolled, and 31 students have so far graduated. The program has succeeded in attracting excellent students and has gradually grown from classes of three students to classes of seven to eight students. Numerous students from the DB Program have graduated with an excellent to outstanding publication record, and the average number of publications per graduate student is above 4.5, with an average of more than 2.5 first author papers. These publications have an average impact factor of higher than 10 per publication. Since the current students are recruited from a better and larger applicant pool, it is anticipated that these data will improve even more in the future. For example the GPA of the incoming students has steadily grown from an average of 3.21 in 2000 to 3.66 in 2006. The program emphasizes a rigorous educational program with numerous courses in many different areas of science. Students must pass two qualifying exams, one of which testing general knowledge and one examining their mastery of the ongoing research in the laboratory they select, which is an R01 type application. The goal is to prepare students for a multidisciplinary research environment in biomedical sciences. The program has selected and monitored students carefully and has a very low attrition rate (less than 7%) when compared to most graduate programs. It also has been able to recruit talented underrepresented students in the past five years. During the past training period there were four predoctoral positions awarded each year. Given the expansion of the program and the number of excellent eligible students, seven predoctoral positions are being requested now. The goal is to support first and second year graduate students. For example, there are six eligible incoming students for 2006. Also requested is a modest postdoctoral training component to the program since there are more than 35 eligible candidates per year performing research in the laboratories of the training faculty members. A better integrate of these postdoctoral fellows in the DB Program would entice them to attend some classes offered by the program, invite them to the annual retreat, promote their interactions with other developmental biologists, allow them also to teach in some of the courses, and hence prepare them better for a career in developmental biology.
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