Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health

描述(由申请者提供)：范德比尔特BIRCWH学者计划的目标是增加准备充分的研究人员池，致力于促进妇女健康知识的发展。我们的科学重点是将妇女健康和性别/性别差异的研究整合到整个科学光谱的蓬勃发展的研究计划中，以便为女孩和妇女实施个性化的预防、诊断和治疗。我们正在以卓越的研究传统为基础，包括正在进行的有75,000多名参与者的上海妇女健康研究，7,190名女性的预期社区怀孕队列，与超过132,000名患者的临床数据相关联的DNA样本，大组织和生物标记物数据库，20年来与记录相关联的医疗补助数据，以及许多其他大规模项目在实验室内外取得基础性发现的例子。我们的16位前任和现任学者在内容广泛的领域进行研究，包括狼疮的免疫学方面，ICU护理结果的性别差异，不良妊娠结果种族差异的遗传基础，怀孕期间接触鸦片类药物的人群水平模式，以及铁平衡对艾滋病毒疾病轨迹的影响。毕业生离开该项目时，平均总共发表了17篇论文，迄今已获得900多万美元的校外研究支持。BIRCWH学者以女性健康和性别差异研究的基本原理为基础，准备领导独立和协作的研究计划，接受培训以有效地部署创新的跨学科方法来应对和解决问题，并致力于追求使对女性的个性化护理更接近现实的研究。学者是通过对早期职业教师的申请进行竞争性审查而挑选出来的。培训是在有组织的跨学科指导的情况下为个别调查员量身定做的，并由PI监督， 项目主任和助理项目主任(均为前BIRCWH学者)。BIRCWH的项目资源进一步得到了无数机构资源的加强，这些资源确保了我们的研究人员蓬勃发展。学者组成指导小组，定期参加BIRCWH正在进行的工作演示和研讨会，每年接受正式评估，与其他K奖获得者一起参加每月两次的职业发展研讨会系列，并定期接触负责任的研究进行的案例研究。他们可以获得：1)一系列核心实验室和资源；2)生物统计学咨询；3)手稿准备工作组；4)完成产品的技术编辑；5)有专家的工作室，以审查科学想法、研究设计和目标；6)强大的内部试点和可行性资金；以及7)赠款撰写支持，包括赠款研讨会、资助的赠款图书馆和模拟研究部分。我们已准备好评估学员和导师的工具，并持续改进我们的计划。咨询委员会和两年一次的外部审查提供进一步的监督。结合这些努力，我们确保精心培养优秀的下一代女性健康研究人员。 公共卫生相关性：高影响力的发现往往源于复杂方法的汇合、对跨领域发现的影响的认识、合作激发的能量和创造力，以及对跨领域主题的重视。我们提出了一个跨学科的职业发展计划，以增加准备充分的研究人员池，专注于促进关于妇女健康的知识，以调查性别/性别在疾病的机制、治疗、结果和预防方面的差异的主题。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of the Vanderbilt BIRCWH Scholars Program is to increase the pool of well-prepared investigators dedicated to advancing knowledge about women's health. Our scientific focus is to integrate the study of women's health and sex/gender differences into thriving research programs across the scientific spectrum, in order to actualize personalized prevention, diagnostics, and therapeutics for girls and women. We are building on a tradition of research excellence that includes the ongoing Shanghai Women's Health Study with 75,000+ participants, a prospective community-based pregnancy cohort of 7,190 women, DNA samples linked with clinical data for more than 132,000 patients, large tissue and biomarker banks, two decades of Medicaid data with record linkage, and numerous other examples of large scale programs making fundamental discoveries inside and outside the lab. Our 16 former and current scholars conduct research in content areas as diverse as immunologic aspects of lupus, gender differences in outcomes of ICU care, genetic underpinnings of racial disparities in adverse pregnancy outcomes, population-level patterns of exposure to opiates in pregnancy, and influence of iron balance on HIV disease trajectory. Alumni leave the program with an average of 17 total publications and to date have been awarded more than $9 million in extramural research support. BIRCWH Scholars are grounded in the fundamentals of women's health and sex differences research, prepared to lead independent and collaborative research programs, trained to effectively deploy innovative interdisciplinary approaches to attack and solve problems, and committed to pursuing research that brings individualized care for women closer to reality. Scholars are selected by competitive review of applications from among early career faculty. Training is tailored to the individual investigator, in the context of structured interdisciplinary mentorship, and is overseen by the PI, Program Director and Assistant Program Director (each a former BIRCWH Scholar). BIRCWH program resources are further enhanced by myriad institutional resources that ensure our researchers thrive. Scholars form a mentoring panel, participate in regular BIRCWH work-in- progress presentations and seminars, receive formal evaluation each year, attend twice-monthly career development seminar series with other K-awardees, and are regularly exposed to case studies on responsible conduct of research. They have access to: 1) an array of core labs and resources; 2) biostatistics consultations; 3) manuscript preparation work groups; 4) technical editing of completed products; 5) studios with experts to vet scientific ideas, research designs, and aims; 6) robust intramural pilot and feasibility funding; and 7) grant writing support includin grant workshops, a funded grant library, and mock study sections. Tools are in place to evaluate both mentees and mentors and to continuously enhance our program. Further oversight is provided by an Advisory Committee and biennial external reviews. Combined these efforts assure we carefully foster excellence in the next generation of women's health researchers. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: High impact discoveries often grow from the confluence of sophisticated methods, awareness of the implications of findings across fields, the energy and creativity sparked by collaborations, and emphasis on pursuing cross-cutting themes. We propose an interdisciplinary career development program to increase the pool of well-prepared investigators focused on advancing knowledge about women's health that is anchored in the theme of investigating sex/gender differences in the mechanisms, treatment, outcomes, and prevention of disease.