Translational Research Training in Child Psychiatry

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PROJECT SUMMARY This is an application for renewal of the T32, “Translational Research Training in Child Psychiatry” that has been funded continuously since 1980. The mission of this program is to recruit and train the next generation of translational scientists who recognize that the development of effective prevention and/or therapeutic strategies for neurodevelopmental disorders requires studying the bidirectional pathways between the underlying biology and environment at both the individual and population level. The success of the training program is reflected in both the accomplishments of the trainees and in the diversity of the fellows. In the past 15 years, 46 applicants were selected into the training program, of whom 74% were female and 33% were MDs (5 MD/PhDs and 10 MDs) and the remaining were PhDs. Over the past 15 years, our trainees have received substantial independent funding including 14 career development awards (K08, K01, and K23), 19 R01-level grants (R01, SC1, UH3, UG3), 4 R21s, 2 R25s, 1 T34, 1 U79, 21 foundation grants, 4 awards from the Sackler Institute of Developmental Psychobiology, 4 NIH loan repayment awards, and 1 award from the New York State Office of Mental Health. In addition, 3 K award applications are under review from current fellows or very recent graduates. Of the 46 trainees who have completed our T32 in the past 14 years, 83% are now in research positions. We currently have 6 fellows, with 1 graduating next month and 1 new MD fellow accepted to begin July 2019. In the last submission of this T32, the committee noted the high rate of success amongst past trainees who have largely gone on to secure academic positions and who have demonstrated strong track records of publishing and obtaining extramural funding. The committee also noted our “outstanding group of mentors who represent broad interdisciplinary expertise” and our “well-outlined training curriculum that strongly incorporates RDoC, and the excellent pool of applicants.” Herein, we take steps to further improve our successful training program and our recruitment of a diverse applicant pool and, specifically, physician scientists. We include explicit processes for mentoring our mentors and now emphasize training in data science and computational psychiatry methods, while continuing to offer innovative training in translational neuroscience.