Postdoctoral Training in Cardiovascular Disease

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This application requests funding for the fifth competitive renewal of a postdoctoral training program in Cardiovascular Diseases. The program is designed to provide opportunities for Cardiology- and Surgical-based physician-scientist trainees to become independent investigators in Cardiovascular research. The program takes advantage of the many existing strengths of Columbia University, including the Irving Center for Clinical and Translational Research (CTSA), Mailman School of Public Health, Genome Center, Bioinformatics, Tissue and Biomedical Engineering and numerous basic science departments and strong clinical programs. Our program focuses on successful completion of critical milestones, during and after the training period. Key milestones for our trainees are publications, especially first-authored papers, and financial- and mentoring- support for career-development awards such as K awards, and ultimately R01 awards. Trainees are exposed to a diverse group of faculty, each well-funded, with outstanding training and publication records. Trainees are encouraged to choose co-mentors, to enhance their multi-disciplinary training. Faculty mentors direct research training in four primary areas: 1) Vascular Biology including atherosclerosis, diabetes and metabolism; 2) Cardiomyocyte biology, including ion channels, pharmacology and tissue- and biomedical-engineering, 3) Immunology and Precision Medicine, and 4) Translational, Outcomes and Clinical Research. The usual duration of the program is two years but may be extended to three years. The T32 program builds on the highly academically-oriented feeder residency and fellowship programs in General Surgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery, and Cardiology. Our trainees are selected from a very large pool of outstanding applicants to these clinical training programs, as well as through direct applications to the research training program. Special efforts are undertaken to enhance our recruitment of women and minorities. The training program and the core departments have well-established cardiovascular research seminar series and journal clubs, joint laboratory meetings and retreats that are designed to foster collaborations and interdisciplinary research. In addition, the training program itself sponsors seminars and monthly work-in-progress sessions to assess trainee progress. The training program has an efficient evaluation and feedback system to ensure appropriate training of our fellows. Throughout the program and afterwards, trainees are advised on research and career development, individually and through a mentoring program headed by an Associate Director for Trainee Development. Graduates of our research training program have continued on the trajectory of successful academic careers, obtaining faculty positions at leading academic research institutions as well as receiving extramural peer reviewed career development awards and research grants. In summary, the proposed program builds upon our 25-year track record of successful research training of clinician-scientists, capitalizing on our institution's strengths in clinical/translational and basic cardiovascular research and education.