TRAINING IN THE MOLECULAR BASIS OF MUSCLE CONTRACTION

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(Adapted from applicant's abstract) Within the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Vermont, a core group of researchers has long focused their work on the mechanisms of muscle contraction. New approaches, including molecular genetics, protein crystallography, single molecule mechanics, and myosin fluorescence studies have expanding both the depth and the breadth of this research. Additional perspectives are brought by investigators dedicating their work to the mechanisms of motor-protein based disease (for example Familial Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy). This multidisciplinary and multidepartmental cluster of laboratories therefore both spans and integrates investigations of muscle mechanisms from individual molecules through whole organisms. This group forms a "dream" environment for training at either the pre- or postdoctoral level, with "down-the-hall" access to an unprecedented spectrum of state-of-the-art methodologies and world-class expertise. Ongoing activities with the Department of Physiology, and in collaboration with other departments, provide an environment for continued research career development. Besides the regular graduate courses, the applicants have several ongoing study groups that meet regularly in specifically focusses areas. Although this group has also been active for many years in training new investigators, the size of the program has always been small. They currently have 5 graduate students and 4 post-doctoral fellows working within the 18 fully established laboratories that constitute this program. It is proposed here to increase the participation of young researchers by developing a specifically targeted training program in the molecular basis of muscle contraction. The applicants are requesting three positions for pre- graduate trainees, who will join the existing Ph.D. program within the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics for a 4-5 year program. In addition, they are seeking support for 4 postdoctoral fellows to join individual laboratories, and to facilitate the interactivity of the group by developing projects that span different labs.