International Maternal & Child Health Research/Training

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DESCRIPTION (Provided by applicant): Craniofacial anomalies require an interdisciplinary approach to clinical care as well as in investigating their causes and prevention. This proposal is designed to enhance the quality, focus and density of training in craniofacial anomalies while fostering interactions between trainees and investigators in Brazil and the United States. The program will take advantage of already-existing strong collaborations between the University of Iowa and several universities within Brazil that focus on birth defects and craniofacial anomalies in particular. It will further exploit additional investigators on the University of Iowa campus who have strong ties to Brazil and/or strong research programs or clinical activities in the area of craniofacial anomalies. Finally, it will also make use of a small group of high quality investigators outside of the University of Iowa who have particular and special expertise in different areas of craniofacial anomalies research to provide training opportunities for pre- and postdoctoral fellows. The program itself involves five components: 1) the recruitment and training of predoctoral students at the Masters or PhD level in research areas relevant to craniofacial anomalies; 2) the recruitment and training of postdoctoral fellows, either MD, DDS or PhD to provide additional high-quality training in areas of research interest relevant to craniofacial anomalies; 3) a two-week long short course to be given yearly in Brazil and using both U.S. and Brazilian faculty that will provide both an overview of the interdisciplinary clinical and research aspects of craniofacial anomalies that will rotate topics and host site in Brazil 4) support for short time interactions between junior investigators from either the U.S. or Brazil to spend time in research or clinical trial settings in the complementary country to foster collaborative interactions and explore the development of expertise in new areas of relevance to their research; 5) support for a small group of pre- or postdoctoral trainees in U.S. programs to spend two weeks to two months in Brazilian research or clinical trial settings to develop early on an interest in and expertise related to craniofacial anomalies with an emphasis on cross-country collaboration. Opportunities will be afforded to pursue formal Masters degree programs in epidemiology, public health, nursing, genetics and related fields and to participate actively in the multispecialty clinics related to craniofacial anomalies. The outcome of this program will be a strengthening of collaborative interactions between the two countries, the training of cadres of young investigators with a strong interest in craniofacial anomalies and the long-term prospect of a dedicated program that will enhance craniofacial anomalies research.