Training Program in Basic and Translational Cardiovascular Science

摘要

ABSTRACT This is a renewal application of a training program in its 9th year that seeks funding to support predoctoral and postdoctoral research trainees in a multidisciplinary research program in cardiovascular and vascular diseases spanning from molecular and cellular studies, imaging, biomedical engineering, to translational science. During the last funding cycle, we have been highly successful in expanding our training program from 31 faculty five years ago to 40 faculty in this competing renewal. The faculty in our Training Program are from five different schools/Colleges. Indeed, the training program has had a highly synergistic impact on our institution; we have been successful in establishing a new Cardiovascular Research Center (CVRC) through institutional funding from five different schools and colleges at UC Davis which will be launched in Fall 2017. The curriculum and activities developed within the training program have been used as models for other training grants in translational research on campus and hence, serve a wider group of trainees at UC Davis. The Program operates under the auspices of the Department of Internal Medicine and the Graduate Studies in Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Physiology (MCIP), Pharmacology and Toxicology (PTX), Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (BMCDB), Biophysics (BPH) and Biomedical Engineering (BME), a truly multidisciplinary program. The goal of the Training Program is to produce a new blend of scientists who are poised to exchange ideas, expertise, and techniques leading to the direct and effective flow and translation of basic science discoveries into clinical testing and applications, as well as generate mechanistic hypotheses that can be tested at the basic cellular level, directly derived from clinical research. The advantages of such an integrated program are vast and far reaching. By merging clinical mentors together with pre-doctoral and post-doctoral trainees in basic science, our objectives are to foster new Ph.D.s and postdoctoral researchers who are not only capable of establishing independent research, but are also adept to recognizing and integrating relevant basic science questions into clinically germane answers and solutions.