FOCIS New Investigator Travel Awards (2004-2008)

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This grant request is for fifty (50) Travel Awards of $1,500 each for a total of $75,000, increasing by 5% annually, for new investigators (pre-doctoral fellows, post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty members) from the United States to attend the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS) annual meeting. This grant request accounts for only 50% of the funding for FOCIS Travel Awards. Additional funding will be solicited from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The FOCIS annual meeting provides a scientific forum to foster the cross-disciplinary approach required to understand and treat immune-based diseases as the discipline of clinical immunology evolves. The evolution is a reflection of the shared pathophysiology of many diseases, including: autoimmune diseases, cancer, allergy/asthma, infectious diseases, immune deficiency, and transplant rejection. While clinicians necessarily remain linked to diseases associated with their own specialty, the immunological sciences underlying recent advances in diagnosing and treating these diverse diseases are multidisciplinary and cut across standard clinical boundaries. The ultimate goal of the FOCIS annual meeting is to create a better understanding of the shared pathophysiological underpinnings of clinical immunology and the new therapeutic approaches suggested by these novel relationships, including the increasingly widespread use of biologics in therapy. The FOCIS annual meeting offers new investigators an opportunity to understand where breakthroughs in basic science models are coming into the clinic, and how clinical therapies can be applied in completely different fields. In addition to highlighting the best science in the field, the FOCIS annual meeting is an incubator for developing scientists and practitioners alike to meet with one another along with representatives of the relevant biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry whose combined support is invaluable to the success of this meeting. Each day includes poster and oral abstract presentations to give young scientists as well as senior investigators the chance to have their work presented and critiqued. By sharing discoveries with one another, delegates acquire new ideas for research and applied science from disciplines to which they would otherwise not be exposed at disease- or organ-specific meetings. The FOCIS annual meeting is an ideal forum for new investigators to learn about the different translational approaches that are bridging the basic immunology laboratories with clinical practice. In addition to encouraging the participation of new investigators, FOCIS recognizes the importance of participation from a wide range of demographics. Every effort has been made to include a diverse representation within the FOCIS Steering Committee and the annual meeting's scientific program. At the third annual FOCIS meeting, 36% of the meeting attendees were woman, 25% were new investigators, and 25% were minority.