D.5. Skills development plan: The lead institution, Washington University (WU) has for over 70 years been a center of excellence in medical science and over the past 20 or more years, significant advances in Imaging Sciences has enabled WU to be a world leader in these fields. More recently, WU has become known for its strengths in the area of nanotechnology with the multidisciplinary and interrelated nature of these efforts being recognized in both research and teaching. As a result, training of scientists in these areas of study has been carried out under several different graduate programs in several departments at the University. In this Aim, we will integrate these multiple areas of excellence, and the acknowledged prominence of the University of California (Berkeley/Santa Barbara) in chemistry and materials science, to develop a new curriculum that will train graduate students, research fellows and medical residents in this rapidly evolving field of biomedical applications of nanotechnology. The curriculum proposed here is highly multidisciplinary, and involves chemistry, biology, medicine, and physics. In keeping with the theme of this grant application, we plan to develop two courses that specifically target the biological and medical applications of nanotechnology. These courses (as well others already in place) will be dovetailed to a broader training agenda in the area of Imaging Sciences currently being pursued by the University, for which a grant proposal on Curriculum Development for a future Imaging Sciences Graduate Program submitted to NIH under their Roadmap Initiative (C. Anderson, P.I.) recently received a score of 139 (no percentile ranking listed). In addition to developing curriculum, during the grant award period, we plan to award fellowships for post-graduate fellows and graduate students in Chemistry or the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences who are training in the labs of faculty doing nanotechnology and medical research at all three institutions. An important component to our educational activities will be the development of workshops, open to the general community, that focus upon ethical issues related to the clinical application of nanotechnology. This is especially significant, given that many nanoscientists/nanotechnologists overlook the environmental and health impacts of their work and also, many medical scientists remain uninformed of the potential and risks associated with nanotechnology. It is absolutely clear that to take full advantage of the emerging opportunities at the interface of nanotechnology and medical science, a new group of researchers must be trained with skills that historically derive from multiple, previously unrelated disciplines. The specific intent of the proposed curriculum and training program is to bring these fields together and to serve as a national resource for teaching and a focal point for outreach efforts. Students engaged in this curriculum will gain the interdisciplinary knowledge and skills they require to prepare them for exciting new careers in the medical applications of nanotechnology. Curriculum Development in Nanotechnology. Two new courses will be developed in the area of nanotechnology and medicine. One of the courses will focus on the fundamental principles of nanotechnology, while the second course is a seminar course/journal club, which will give trainees exposure to research in the field of nanotechnology at WU and at outside institutions.
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