This is an application for continued support for the University of Chicago Cardiovascular Sciences Training Program (CTSP). This program is currently in its 29th year of support and provides training in basic and translational cardiovascular sciences to both predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees. This program began in 1970's with the application of molecular techniques to the heart to study ion channel function and mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias. During the 1980's, molecular biology was introduced into the CSTP. In the 1990's, this program continued in its mission to bring scientific advances to cardiovascular research providing training in murine modeling, including targeted homologous recombination and transgenesis. Coupled with this, our program was one of the first to apply cardiac imaging and phenotyping to murine models of heart disease. In the last five years, we have used our combined expertise at the University of Chicago Biological Sciences Division to draw exceptional trainees to the field of cardiac devlopment and genetics, using the information from the human genome project to understand how individual genes contribute to the normal and abnormal function of the heart. In the next five years, we will build on the strengths of transdisciplinary training at the University of Chicago to investigate genome variation and its relevance to cardiovascular disease. In addition, we will use a systems approach to dissect the networks that are disrupted in heart failure and heart development. The University of Chicago has now created the Institute of Cardiovascular Research to promote interdepartmental efforts and to provide trainees within the CTSP an overarching structure in which they can develop into the next generation of cardiovascular scientists. We train a balance of clinically-skilled MD fellows who wish to pursue careers as physician-scientists, and we train PhD postdoctoral fellows who are directed towards careers in cardiovascular research. Complementing this, we train predoctoral students since this serves to attract young scientists to cardiovascular research early in their career. The mentors in this program derive from ten different departments, all housed on our unified campus and in close proximity. There are four major concentrations within the CSTP and these include: 1) Cardiomyocyte biology, 2) Genetics, Genomics and Systems, 3) Cardiac Development, and 4) Myocyte-vascular Interactions.
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