Tri-Institutional Training Program in Chemical Biology

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan-Kettering Tri-Institutional Training Program in Chemical Biology comprises combined faculty from Cornell University (CU) in Ithaca , NY and the Weill Medical College of Cornell University (WCMC), The Rockefeller University (RU), and the Sloan-Kettering Institute (SKI), the research arm of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York City (NYC)- the latter group of three biomedical research and educational institutions are in close geographic proximity. The main theme of our proposed project is to create a new training environment that will be specifically tailored to train a future generation or scientists with expertise at the interface of chemistry and the biomedical sciences. This new training environment, referred to as the Training Program in Chemical Biology (TPCB) attempts to address the challenges of melding two disciplines with diverse scientific cultures and approaches, i.e., that of chemistry with that of biomedical research. In order to maintain and insure the rigorous training typical of graduate programs in chemistry, students that participate in this program must first be admitted to the graduate program in Chemistry at Cornell in Ithaca and complete an expanded and accelerated schedule of graduate classes in the first year. During the summer preceding their first year of classes as well as during the winter-break period of the first year, students carry out short research internships in biomedical research laboratories at the New York City participating institutions. The second year of training takes place on the campuses of the New York City participating institutions and gives the students training in cutting edge aspects of biomedical research. In addition to course and lab work in each location, students are also exposed to a series of research seminars to give them maximal exposure to the research environments at the 4 institutions. The program has recruited its third class of entering students bringing the current enrollment to 25 students. The goal of the program is to train chemists in a biomedical science environment, not merely to have students switch from chemistry to biology. The need to examine biomedical problems with the mindset of a chemist is lever more pressing in the post-genomics era. The goal of this project is to help meet the future needs defined in terms of these challenging research problems by training students simultaneously in these two different research disciplines.