Training Program in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology

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Project Summary The Duke Development and Stem Cell Biology (DSCB) Program is a broad, interdepartmental consortium of students and faculty pursuing developmental, stem cell, and regenerative biology research at the molecular, cellular, genetic, evolutionary, and systems levels. Researchers from across over 10 departments at Duke University and Duke School of Medicine participate. The mission of the DSCB PhD program is to train the next generation of predoctoral scientists in principles of development, stem cell biology, and regeneration through targeted coursework, lab research, and interactions within the DSCB community. The diverse backgrounds, research expertise, and perspectives of our community enable us to enrich and personalize the training environment. Our goal is to develop in our students: confidence, independent critical thinking, academic rigor, and the intellectual curiosity and creativity to synthesize new ideas and communicate them effectively. To accomplish this goal, we have devised a training plan which incorporates long-standing strengths of our 20 year program with new innovations to align with contemporary training. This includes a revised curriculum, required mentor training, and partnerships with new centralized offices at Duke focused on training biomedical researchers and enhancing diversity. Our plan incorporates education in core principles of development, stem cell biology and regeneration, as well as foundational education in genetics and molecular and cellular biology. Our students also gain training in data science principles, scientific communication, responsible conduct of research, and grant writing. This is achieved through a curriculum composed of modular course structure, innovative hands-on-training, and discussion based courses. Extensive laboratory training provides each student with expertise in a chosen specialty, and technical and conceptual scientific skillsets. Our trainees present their research at meetings and publish their research in journals, which builds their scientific communication skills. University-wide resources provide valuable professional resources and opportunities to help students develop their full potential to pursue a diversity of careers, and also provides platforms for tracking the progress of our students. We require mentor training and also train our students to be mentors. Our proposal seeks 10 annual training positions which will fund students in their second and third year of graduate school. Our 20 year old program has trained many scientists who have gone onto high-impact, research-related careers.