Structural biology and molecular biophysics training program

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The central mission of our training program in Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics (SBMB) is to leverage the immense resources, outstanding faculty, and superb graduate students of the University of Pennsylvania to promote and strengthen advanced education in structural biology and molecular biophysics. Through this training program, we seek to train a cadre of superlative students who will subsequently provide national leadership in both academia and industry in this core area of biomedical research in the United States. Our program is tailored to imbue trainees with not only deep technical training but also to provide the “soft skills” necessary to recognize and respond to the needs of the broader biomedical research effort and to do so in an efficient, productive and responsible way. Not many universities in the United States match the research resources offered by the University of Pennsylvania. Importantly, all schools of the University are located on one contiguous campus providing a significant advantage for collaborative interactions across disciplines. The University of Pennsylvania has established a broadly based research effort in structural biology and molecular biophysics, which significantly impacts the training program. In 1927 the University received an endowment to establish a foundation in medical physics, which has evolved to support a range of technologies and capabilities including structural and computational biophysics, high-resolution NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, calorimetry, electron microscopy and single molecule biophysics - approaches that form the backbone of our pre-doctoral training program. It is in this strong technical framework that the training program resides. A focused group of dedicated faculty trainers provides excellent coverage of the various subfields of structural biology and molecular biophysics but is of a size that permits extensive interaction between trainees and trainers. The training program is structured around two intensive year-long series of meetings. The first will serve as a vehicle to introduce students to not only the technical aspects of SBMB but also to a range of “soft skills” and topics directly relevant to career and professional development. Open to all qualified students, this series of meetings will impact the biomedical community far beyond the trainees that are directly supported. The second series of meetings will expose trainees to more intense scientific development and aid the transition of the novice to the more independent and advanced graduate student. Emphasis will be placed on rigorous experimental design and analysis. Trainees will be drawn largely from the outstanding pool of students in the Chemistry and Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics (BMB) graduate groups. Refined mechanisms for program oversight, mentoring and evaluation are in place. In summary, the breadth of institutional support available combined with the strength of the trainer faculty and the depth of the trainee population ensures that our record of success for recruitment and pre-doctoral training in structural biology and molecular biophysics will continue.