INTERDISCIPLINARY TRAINING PROGRAM IN MUSCLE BIOLOGY

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This program is designed to provide interdisciplinary training in muscle biology for pre- and postdoctoral students. The program will emphasize the functional properties of skeletal, cardiac and smooth muscle. Our 16 faculty members come from 4 basic science departments at the School of Medicine, University of Maryland at Baltimore, and 1 department in the College of Engineering at our sister campus, University of Maryland Baltimore County. Reflecting this diversity of faculty' backgrounds, the training offered will range from the molecular biological determinants of muscle development and molecular aspects of structure and function of muscle proteins through cell biological aspects of muscle cytoskeleton and matrix, biophysical and physiological analysis of individual muscle cell function and biomechanical properties of whole muscles and muscular organs. Our faculty is nationally and internationally recognized in the areas of calcium control of muscle function and muscle cytoskeleton and matrix. Our students will receive training in these and in a variety of related areas, with emphasis on the use of several complimentary techniques to approach each question under investigation. The major didactic aspect of the predoctoral training will be an expanded interdisciplinary course on muscle that is already regularly offered by the program faculty and which has been well received by past student groups. We propose to begin the program with 1 predoctoral and 2 postdoctoral trainees in the first year, increase to 2 pre- and 3 postdoctorals in the second year, to 2 pre- and 4 postdoctorals in the third year and then reach a steady state of 3 pre- and 4 postdoctoral trainees in the fourth and fifth years. Entering predoctoral trainees will have a solid background in biology, chemistry and/or physics, excellent GRE scores and strong letters of recommendation. Incoming postdoctoral trainees will have completed a solid PhD thesis and have strong letters of recommendation. Trainees from this program will be prepared to bring a wide range of approaches to bear on answering basic questions in muscle biology and on the bases for muscle diseases and their possible treatment or eventual cure. The program therefore serves a national need for competent multi-disciplinary investigators of muscle function and disease.