IGERT: Cellular and Molecular Imaging for Diagnostics and Therapeutics

细胞和分子检测和治疗技术的出现已经开始改变我们对人类疾病的看法。医生不再仅仅依靠临床评估和一般生理标志物来发现疾病和选择治疗方案，而是开始使用疾病的细胞和分子生物标志物来选择甚至设计针对单个患者的最佳治疗方案。为了实现这一方法的前景，需要工具来检测体内疾病的分子和细胞标记物，并监测它们对治疗的反应。细胞和分子成像能够以微观分辨率动态显示单个活细胞和组织中的疾病生物标志物，从根本上改变了我们诊断疾病、选择和监测治疗方法的方式。要实现细胞和分子成像的前景，需要在成像科学、造影剂开发以及监测细胞和分子疗法的工具设计方面拥有广泛技能的工程师和科学家。这个IGERT项目的目标是开发一个跨学科的研究生培训计划，重点是诊断和治疗中的细胞和分子成像。这一跨学科计划建立在我们现有的IGERT光学分子生物工程拨款的基础上。在过去的四年半里，我们的团队培训学生开发和使用新的光子技术、适应性和特定的造影剂以及计算机，以解决基本的生物学问题和改进诊断成像模式的需求。与此同时，德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校、德克萨斯大学安德森癌症中心和休斯顿的德克萨斯大学健康科学中心在生物医学工程的新的跨学科项目上投入了大量资金。在这次竞争更新中，我们整合了这些努力，开发了用于诊断和治疗的细胞和分子成像方面的多学科培训计划。细胞和分子成像的临床应用取决于是否有一批专业人员接受过跨学科培训，包括成像科学、疾病的生物标记物、分子造影剂的设计和使用以及细胞和分子治疗的原理。这个项目将开发一条跨学科的新途径，在一个研究生学位中综合这些领域。该学位课程将包含四个重要的跨学科特征。(1)博士课程档案袋计划将为学生在该领域开展跨学科研究做好准备。(2)学生将在新的咨询结构下进行跨学科研究，来自不同学科的联合顾问监督学生的研究。论文委员会将有工程学院和自然科学学院的教职员工以及临床导师的广泛参与。(3)学生将接受技术评估和转让方面的培训，以帮助他们欣赏翻译研究的范围，因为它导致商业产品。(4)学生将参加至少一次实习，在那里他们看到自己的研究在不同的环境中得到应用：临床实习使学生能够参与翻译性、临床研究；工业实习使学生能够参与技术开发；国际实习使他们能够以全球视角进行研究和开发。IGERT项目的智力优势和更广泛的影响在于跨学科研究和教育的整合，这将把拥有不同技能的学生、教师和临床医生团队聚集在一起，开发和评估用于诊断和治疗的新型分子和细胞成像系统。这些团队将合作开发和展示课程和研讨会，定义重要的临床问题，并开发和评估基于工程的解决方案。通过与历史上少数族裔的得克萨斯州本科院校的参与，我们将从贫困群体中招募研究生参与这一计划。随着我们专注于技术的并行开发、评估和转让，我们将与业界建立关键的合作伙伴关系。这些合作伙伴关系将为我们的学生提供有关各种职业机会的信息，并将加快将在这里开发的研究进展应用于普通医学实践的进程。IGERT是一个NSF范围的项目，旨在应对培养具有跨学科背景、选定学科的深厚知识以及满足未来职业需求所需的技术、专业和个人技能的美国博士科学家和工程师的挑战。该项目旨在通过建立创新的研究生教育和培训新模式，在超越传统学科界限的合作研究的肥沃环境中，催化研究生教育的文化变革。在该计划的第六个年头，由NSF支持的共同跨越科学和工程领域的项目将被授予机构奖项。

The advent of cellular and molecular-based detection and therapeutic technologies has begun to transform the way we think about human disease. Instead of relying only on clinical evaluation and general physiologic markers to detect disease and select therapy, physicians are beginning to use cellular and molecular biomarkers of disease to select and even to design the optimized therapeutic regime for an individual patient. To achieve the promise of this approach requires tools to detect molecular and cellular markers of disease in vivo and to monitor their modulation in response to therapy. Cellular and molecular imaging have the ability to dynamically visualize biomarkers of disease in single living cells and tissues with microscopic resolution, yielding a fundamental change in the way we diagnose disease, and select and monitor therapy. To achieve the promise of cellular and molecular imaging requires engineers and scientists with a wide breadth of skills in imaging science, contrast agent development, and design of tools to monitor cellular and molecular-based therapeutics. The goal of this IGERT project is to develop an interdisciplinary graduate training program focused on cellular and molecular imaging for diagnostics and therapeutics. This interdisciplinary program builds on our existing IGERT grant in Optical Molecular Bio-Engineering. Over the last four and a half years, our team has trained students to develop and use new photonic technologies, adaptable and specific contrast agents, and computers to address both fundamental biological questions and the need for improved diagnostic imaging modalities. At the same time, the University of Texas at Austin, the UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the UT Health Science Center at Houston have invested heavily in new interdisciplinary programs in Biomedical Engineering. In this competitive renewal, we integrate these efforts, to develop a multidisciplinary training program in cellular and molecular imaging for diagnostics and therapeutics.The clinical use of cellular and molecular imaging hinges on the availability of a cadre of professionals with inter-disciplinary training spanning imaging science, biomarkers of disease, design and use of molecular contrast agents, and the principles of cellular and molecular based therapies. This project will develop an inter-disciplinary new pathway, which synthesizes these fields in a single graduate degree. The degree program will incorporate four important inter-disciplinary features. (1) A doctoral portfolio program of coursework will prepare students to carry out inter-disciplinary research in this field. (2) Students will carry out inter-disciplinary research under a new advisory structure, where co-advisors from different disciplines supervise the student's research. The thesis committee will have broad participation from faculty in the Colleges of Engineering and Natural Sciences as well a clinical mentor. (3) Students will receive training in technology assessment and transfer, to help them appreciate the spectrum of translational research as it leads to commercial products. (4) Students will participate in at least one internship where they see the application of their research in a different setting: Clinical internships allow students to participate in translational, clinical research; industrial internships enable students to participate in technology development; and international internships enable them to carry out research and development with a global perspective. The intellectual merit and broader impacts of this IGERT project reside in the integration of inter-disciplinary research and education that will bring together teams of students, faculty and clinicians with diverse skill sets to develop and evaluate novel molecular and cellular imaging systems for diagnostics and therapeutics. These teams will collaborate to develop and present courses and seminars, to define important clinical problems and to develop and evaluate engineering based solutions. Through participation with historically minority Texas undergraduate institutions, we will recruit graduate students from underrepresesented groups to participate in this program. As we focus on the parallel development, assessment, and transfer of technology, we will create key partnerships with industry. These partnerships will provide our students with information about a variety of career opportunities, and will expedite the process of bringing the research advances developed here to general medical practice.IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. In this sixth year of the program, awards are being made to institutions for programs that collectively span the areas of science and engineering supported by NSF.