Immunopathology Training Grant

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application is being submitted to support the training of pre-doctoral fellows, enrolled in the Cellular and Molecular Pathology Graduate Program at UCLA, with research interests in the area of Immunopathology and Inflammation. The Cellular and Molecular Pathology Program is the Ph D granting unit of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UCLA. A distinguishing feature of this program is that students are trained to bridge the gap between the fields of immunology and pathology. This latter goal is accomplished through attendance at special seminars and Pathology Grand Rounds presentations, interactions with Cellular and Molecular Pathology training program faculty, many of whom are practicing pathologists, and a program of didactic coursework. All students complete courses in cell biology and molecular genetics and a core Pathology course in which instruction in basic pathologic concepts, such as inflammation and repair, and lectures designed to understand mechanisms of disease are presented. In addition, immunopathology trainees will be required to complete an advanced immunology course and additional research courses in immunopathology. As a result, over the course of their anticipated five years of training, trainees will learn to integrate findings at the cellular level with systemic processes and obtain the expertise to translate and answer questions defined in the clinical area to the laboratory bench and vice-versa. Over half of the graduate program faculty, as well as 17 of the 34 pre-doctoral fellows currently enrolled in the Cellular and Molecular Pathology program, conduct research in the area of immunopathology/inflammation. Most students in the program entered UCLA via UCLA ACCESS, an admissions process and first year curriculum jointly administered by 11 departments, prior to transfer into the Cellular and Molecular Pathology program. Additional trainees are M D/Ph D candidates as well as practicing M D's who are undertaking Ph D studies. Specific research topics being studied include lymphocyte development, actions of chemokines and anti-microbial peptides in host defense and inflammation, the role of immune system cells in promoting inflammatory processes, transplantation biology, microbial pathogenesis, and nuclear receptors that regulate monocyte activation. This research is conducted in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.