Multidisciplinary Training in Cancer Research

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our proposed training program is specifically focused on the multidisciplinary training of predoctoral students and postdoctoral fellows in the field of cancer research. To achieve this goal we have developed an interdisciplinary cancer training program which will synthesize already established and successful programs in signal transduction, gene structure and function, receptor biology, DNA repair, structural biology, bioengineering and drug discovery with clinical exposure into one cohesive program. Students and fellows will receive laboratory training and didactic instruction from expert faculty actively involved in both basic science cancer research and leading edge clinical applications. Moreover, it is our goal that our students and fellows will also be trained to function as active members of the scientific community who can clearly communicate ideas, critically evaluate biomedical research and mentor others in scientific scholarship. We have assembled 31 training faculty from 9 different departments and multiple disciplines. This cohesive and collaborative group of basic researchers and clinician scientists who are dedicated to a lifetime of basic discovery and treatment of cancer patients. In the past 10 years our program faculty has trained 112 predoctoral and 180 postdoctoral fellows and has the experience as well as the interdisciplinary focus to guide this group of trainees to function in teams pursuing research in a truly multidisciplinary fashion. We want our students and fellows to be adept at utilizing traditionally hypothesis driven methods as well as discovery oriented experimental designs to explore these problems. The ultimate goal is to develop a cadre of future scientists who can participate at the intersection of molecular biology, genomics/proteomics, bioengineering and clinical care to become leaders in integrative and team approaches to understand the complex issues of cancer as it relates to potential prevention and innovative treatment strategies. In addition, UTMB is a national leader in the training of minority physicians, researchers and students and, therefore, another goal of our program is to utilize established programs to ensure that we are training individuals of diverse backgrounds and ethnicities to better serve our diverse society.