Training in Biomolecular Pharmacology

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The pre-doctoral Program in Biomolecular Pharmacology at Boston University School of Medicine received an NIGMS Institutional Training Grant in July of 1997. During the past five years, this University-wide Program has been fully implemented with an interdisciplinary curriculum, laboratory rotations, and expanded opportunities for research training. The academic units participating in this Program, Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Biomedical Engineering, Physiology and Biophysics, and Molecular Medicine, reflect the goal of producing doctoral scientists with pharmacologic expertise ranging from interactions of bioactive molecules to molecular basis of disease and novel approaches to drug discovery. Participating faculty, originally fifteen and now twenty-eight, contribute training expertise ranging from computational, chemical, and biological study of molecules to elucidation of cognitive function in rodent and primate models. The primary research areas include neuro-pharmacology, vascular pharmacology, and genomics and proteomics, supplemented by studies in structural biology and DNA, RNA, and protein chemistry. In addition to the departments at the medical campus, training sites are located in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Biology, and Psychology at the Chades River campus of Boston University. A four to six week internship with collaborating scientists at Wyeth Research has been arranged as an optional experience during the summer of the first year of training. Since inception of NIGMS funding, seventeen pre-doctoral students, including one underrepresented minority, have been supported from this grant, supplemented by institutional resources. These students were chosen from a pool of over seventy eligible students matriculating into the four participating departments and program. Ph.D. candidates have been selected based on the strength of their undergraduate and graduate-level achievement, primarily with majors in biology, chemistry, and chemical engineering, and their potential for development as molecular pharmacologists. The Bio-molecular Pharmacology Program generally entails study for five years to achieve the expected or integrative level of scholarship and research productivity. This renewal application seeks support for five years of funding for three new students each year but with an increase from four to six stipends in response to the need to support students during their first two years of study.