Interdisciplinary Training in Genes and the Environment

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant) The Interdisciplinary Training in Genes and the Environment program at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) will address the critical need for well-trained scientists who have an understanding of, and commitment to, cutting-edge research at the intersection of molecular and environmental exposure biology, and statistical and computational methods. The training program will involve active participation by 30 accomplished and experienced multidisciplinary faculty members, including environmental health scientists, molecular biologists, molecular epidemiologists, computational biologists, biostatisticians and bioinformaticians. The two interrelated goals of our proposed training program are: To train true collaborative partners able to pursue methodological research that is motivated by, and helps to solve, difficult analytic issues that arise in studies of human environmental exposures and genetic susceptibility to complex diseases; To encourage interdisciplinary research, especially in genetics and the various "omics" arising from new methodologies for characterizing biological activity associated with environmental exposures in laboratory and population sciences. Trainees will be pre-doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows at HSPH in the Departments of Environmental Health, Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Genetics and Complex Diseases, which will jointly administer the grant. The program proposes initial support for 3 pre-doctoral students with 2 additional trainees in year 2 and 3 additional trainees in year 3 to bring an annual total of 8 pre-doctoral students into the program (year 3-8). The program also plans to support training of one post-doctoral fellow per year. These post-doctoral trainees will have an advanced degree (PhD, MD, MD-PhD or other doctoral degree) relevant to exposure biology/environmental health sciences or computational areas of genomics/proteomics and will have a specific interest in cross-training research experience. All trainees in the Interdisciplinary Training in Genes and Environment program will be provided an outstanding opportunity to become equally skilled in genomics, environmental health sciences and quantitative methods in order to attain leadership roles in interdisciplinary studies of human genes and the environment, with the ultimate goal of serving public health interests in developing effective disease prevention and intervention strategies.