Hematology, the study of normal and diseased blood elements and their interaction with the vasculature in which they reside, is a fertile research field, in no small part due to the enviable access of hematologic researchers to primary tissues. Nonetheless, despite remarkable breakthroughs in our understanding of the molecular basis for a wide variety of hematologic illnesses, there remains a gap between our current knowledge and our ability to substantively alter the course of these diseases. The goals of the BUSM Hematology Training Program (HTP) are to attract talented researchers to a hematologic research project, to inspire them to choose some aspect of hematology for their subsequent research careers, and to give them the knowledge base, the technical skills and the grant-writing ability to be able to establish themselves as independent researchers in an academic setting. Our proposed training program, which has been existence since 1980, will train four pre-doctoral students and four post-doctoral students, the latter with either PhD (2) or MD (2) degrees. Trainees will be mentored by a select group of 18 faculty whose research interests are particularly strong in the following four areas: Hemoglobinopathies, Immunotherapy and Immunopathology, Lymphoid Cell Signaling and Gene Expression, and Platelet and Thrombosis Biology. Pre-doctoral students enrolled in established basic science programs such as Biochemistry, Microbiology or Molecular Medicine typically apply to the HTP executive committee during their second year of graduate school. Both pre-doctoral students and post- doctoral fellows attend Hematology Journal Club, Hematology Grand Rounds and a Molecules to Molecular Therapeutics course which is an in depth study of hemoglobinopathies. By fostering an atmosphere in which clinicians and basic science researchers work in close collaboration, our program will train the next generation of hematology researchers to identify practical therapeutic approaches that will close the gap between our knowledge of the molecular basis for hematologic illness and its successful treatment. ? ? ?
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