Mechanisms of Disease

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Mechanisms of Disease and Translational Science (MoD) Track at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) will provide PhD students with core competencies needed to successfully engage in translational research and prepare them for rewarding careers in biomedical research. We will annually appoint 6 first year PhD students for 12 months each. We target this junior population to “imprint” them with the translational science mindset, and to provide iterative long term active training to enable them to seek interdisciplinary collaborations. Rationale. Accelerating the translation of basic biomedical science discoveries to tangible improvements in human health is a national priority. This need is now particularly urgent with the current explosion of scientific and technological discoveries. Mission: MoD will train a new breed of PhD translational scientists capable of targeting their research programs to address unmet therapeutic and diagnostic needs of the future. Our students will be prepared to transition into the biomedical research workforce in multiple professional capacities and to spearhead the bidirectional and interdisciplinary translation of discoveries from the “bench to bedside and back” to improve human health. Objective: Create an innovative and rigorous curriculum to foster critical thinking, rigorous and ethical research design, interdisciplinary team science, and diversity and inclusion. Students will be equipped with both the “intellectual” and “practical” skills to succeed during training and in their future careers. Program Design: MoD is a “supplemental” track overlaid on the 11 existing PhD graduate programs. Our innovative and rigorous curriculum, intense multi- tiered mentoring and career development programs will allow students to achieve a full menu of competencies required to conduct rigorous translational research and to succeed. Students will be immersed in unique opportunities to study human diseases at the interface between basic and clinical sciences. They will be exposed to clinical translational science through small group learning, structured experiences in patient care, and immersion in clinical research. MoD will foster student career development, by offering experiential training in team science, grant writing, leadership, entrepreneurship and communications. Students are required to design and execute the “bench to bedside & back” mini-internship with clinicians in their third year, and are encouraged to seek additional internships to “test-drive” potential future careers. Additionally, our translational science work-in-progress format will bring together a diverse cross-section of clinical and translational trainees and researchers operating across the T0-T4 translational science spectrum. These interactions will promote exchange of ideas and accelerate bidirectional translation. Anticipated outcomes include increasing student engagement in translational research, as measured by grants, publications, time to degree, interdisciplinary collaborations, and career placement. Our MoD plan is innovative, sustainable, and cost-effective. MoD has an eleven-year history of success, and will leverage multiple institutional resources to ensure future success.