Multiscale Biophotonics: A Platform for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Training and Career Development

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PROJECT SUMMARY The overarching objectives and specific aims of this IPERT program are to (1) prepare trainees for successful multi-disciplinary Biophotonics careers and support biomedical workforce development. This will be achieved by (2) advancing the technical and operational proficiency of our trainees in Multiscale Biophotonics through an integration of modeling, computation, experiment, and problem-based learning, and (3) providing our trainees with sustained mentorship for professional development. This will be accomplished by establishing foundational technical and operational skills in the area of Multiscale Biophotonics during a 12-day onsite short course at the University of California, Irvine. This 12-day short course utilizes an integrated modular design and evidence based learning consisting of (a) lectures, (b) technology demonstrations, (c) laboratories combining hands-on data acquisition with computational analysis using our custom Virtual Tissue Simulator (VTS) software platform, (d) Team Science training, (e) mentored capstone problem-based learning (PBL) proposal development, (f) guest lectures on the use of an interdisciplinary Biophotonics approach to address biomedical problems, (g) panel discussions on academic and industrial career paths, and (h) tours of academic and industrial facilities. Further application and growth in trainee skill development will be accomplished by a mentored capstone problem-based learning project to be pursued for one year following the short course completion. In parallel with the short course and year-long PBL project, we will offer both technical and professional mentorship. Our technical mentorship aims to support Biophotonics, instrument and measurement design, technology development, as well as modeling, computation and usage of open-source Computational Biophotonics Tools. Our professional mentorship program aims to aid trainees in identifying appropriate short- and long-term professional goals and develop strategies to attain them. The course has been designed for interdisciplinary group of graduate student, post- doctoral researcher, and faculty scientists and engineers. We propose an aggressive outreach plan to support the participation of trainees who are traditionally underrepresented within STEM as well as from geographic regions that have historically received low levels of NIH support. We aim to train up to 20 individuals each year. In summary, our program provides a technical foundation and mentoring support for trainees to advance and apply an integrated technical proficiency in Multiscale Biophotonics to solve biomedical challenges. As the integration of expertise spanning modeling, computation and experiment are in demand in biomedical research and technology development, the proposed program advances NIGMS programmatic goals for training a diverse biomedical research workforce with expertise most relevant to the NIGMS Division of Biophysics, Biomedical Technology, and Computational Biosciences.