NSF IGERT: Training the Next Generation of Researchers in Cellular & Molecular Mechanics and Bionanotechnology

这个综合研究生教育和研究培训（IGERT）奖的目标是创建一个研究生培训计划，将产生细胞分子力学和生物纳米技术的下一代智力领袖。该计划代表了一个高度协调和跨学科的努力，教育博士。伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校、加州大学默塞德分校、北卡罗来纳州中央大学和合作机构的学生，以解决跨越分子-细胞-组织规模的生物纳米技术的重要问题。活细胞如何将机械信号转换为不同长度尺度的功能，从细胞内部到与细胞外基质的通信，这是我们这个时代的科学挑战。微/纳米技术、分子尺度成像和计算方法学的最新进展将在细胞和分子尺度上催化这场定量生物学革命。在这些领域的交叉点接受培训的学生有可能彻底改变组织和再生工程，生物能量收集，传感和驱动，细胞作为机器和合成生物学，仅举几例。该计划的独特培训工作包括一个双轨教育计划，旨在教育工程和生物学学生发展其研究领域的深度和广度，新的实验模块和夏季研讨会，向IGERT学员介绍最先进的设备和实验室程序，这是一个令人兴奋的iWORLD计划，与世界各地的合作者合作，将为IGERT学员提供国际研究经验，和一个学生领袖理事会，参与领导和推动IGERT的管理。IGERT是一个全国性的计划，旨在满足教育美国博士的挑战。具有跨学科背景的科学家和工程师，在所选学科的深厚知识，以及未来职业需求所需的技术，专业和个人技能。该计划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促进研究生教育的文化变革。

This goal of this Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) award is to create a graduate training program that will produce the next generation of intellectual leaders in Cellular & Molecular Mechanics and Bio-Nanotechnology. This program represents a highly coordinated and interdisciplinary effort to educate Ph.D. students across the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of California at Merced, North Carolina Central University, and partner institutions to tackle the important problems in bionanotechnology spanning the molecular-cellular-tissue scale. How living cells transduce mechanical signals to functionalities at different length scales, from inside cells to their communication with the extra cellular matrix, presents a scientific grand challenge of our times. Recent advancements in micro/nanotechnology, molecular scale imaging, and computational methodologies will catalyze this quantitative biological revolution at a cellular and molecular scale. Students who have been trained at the intersection of these domains have the potential to revolutionize tissue and regenerative engineering, biological energy harvesting, sensing and actuation, cells-as-a-machine, and synthetic biology, to name a few. Unique training efforts in this program include a two-track educational program to educate engineering and biology students to develop depth and breadth in their area of research, new experimental modules and a summer workshop introducing the IGERT trainees to state-of-the-art equipment and laboratory procedures, an exciting iWORLD program with collaborators around the world that will provide IGERT trainees with international research experiences, and a student leader council that participates in the leadership and drives the management of the IGERT.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.