Diseases of Public Health Importance Training Grant

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Project Summary The specific objectives of the training program are to train graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the application of principles and theories of modern biotechnology to specific disease problems. The Pathobiology program provides an interface between molecular approaches and global health. This training mission is supported by the course requirements in our graduate program, which include core courses in Pathobiology emphasizing principles of public and global heath, molecular/cell biology, scientific approaches to disease related issues, and courses in epidemiology and immunology. The multiple research collaborations melding our laboratory-based training with other Public Health Disciplines offer unique opportunities to conduct multidisciplinary studies on diseases of global health significance. Distinguishing features our training program include a focus on: 1) Pathogens relevant to global health; 2) Infectious contributors to chronic diseases; 3) Diseases affecting maternal and child health; 4) Global health issues; 5) Protective and functional immune responses; 6) Vaccine development strategies; 6) Novel methods for intervention and drug discovery; and 7) identification of biomarkers. The Pathobiology training faculty consists of 53 mentors, who collectively have expertise within each of these core and unique focus areas. The predoctoral training program in Pathobiology was approved by the University of Washington Graduate School in 1990, received Interdisciplinary Program Status in 2006, and formally moved into the Department of Global Health in 2017. This move has further enhanced our training program through broadening our students’ learning of global health principles and fostering interactions with international scholars. We have graduated 122 PhDs since 1990. Since 1990, our faculty have trained over 660 postdoctoral fellows. The proposed training program will train 3 predoctoral and 3 postdoctoral trainees per year. The combination of diverse research and classroom environments provide a strong integrated approach to enable trainees to prepare for and deal most effectively with the impact of disease on Global Health.