The goal of this Cardiovascular Research Training Program (CRTP) is to provide outstanding training in basic cardiovascular research to promising predoctoral students and highly qualified MD or PhD postdoctoral fellows. The program includes 27 trainers and 9 junior trainers from 6 basic science and 4 clinical affiliate programs at Case Western Reserve University. The recruited faculty is known for excellence in research, ample NIH funding, and robust research space. The training focuses on relating the basic approaches of molecular and cellular biology, physiology, biophysics, biomedical engineering, and imaging to mechanistic questions and problems pertinent to the cardiovascular system in health and disease, with particular emphasis on (a) Vascular development, inflammation, and thrombosis (b) Cardiac hypertrophy, failure, and regeneration, (c) Cardiac Electrophysiology and arrhythmias, (d) Metabolism and redox regulation, (e) Signal transduction and gene expression , and (f) Cardiovascular imaging. Predoctoral training is accomplished through enrollment of students who have already matriculated in PhD programs in Biomedical Engineering, Cell Biology, Molecular Medicine, Nutrition, Pharmacology, and Physiology &Biophysics, and who have selected a thesis advisor from among the participating trainers. The basic coursework and guided training in research skills provided by these departmental programs is supplemented and enhanced by CRTP-specific components. These include completion of a required graduate course in Cardiovascular Physiology, an exciting Immersion Experience in Cardiovascular Healthcare, participation in the weekly seminar series, monthly journal club, and annual research retreat organized by the recently established Case Cardiovascular Research Institute (CVRI), and mentoring by a CRTP faculty committee that includes senior trainers and junior non-trainer faculty who are developing independent programs in cutting-edge areas of cardiovascular research. Postdoctoral trainees, who are appointed via their recruitment to CRTP trainer labs, also participate in the Cardiovascular Healthcare Immersion, CVRI seminars/retreats/journal club, and the mentoring process. This application seeks 6 positions for years 1-2 (3 for predoctoral trainees and 3 postdoctoral trainees) and 8 positions for years 3-5 (4 predoctoral and 4 postdoctoral trainees).
This Training Program is unique in offering discipline-based training in cardiovascular research within the context of a larger community of trainers from different disciplines who interact via the multiple programs and venues of the Case Cardiovascular Research Institute. Thus, all trainees are exposed to the diverse perspectives and investigational approaches that are critical to current cardiovascular research.
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