Multidisciplinary Rheumatology Training Program

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is a competitive renewal application for a National Research Service Award Institutional Research Training Grant (T32) to further support a Multidisciplinary Rheumatology Training Program at Johns Hopkins. Over the past 4 years, the program has undergone substantial growth and outstanding trainee achievement, including publications, a high rate of faculty appointment after training, and a very high rate of acquisition of independent, peer-reviewed funding. We demonstrate that the overall trajectory of this program is steeply positive, with outstanding divisional and institutional resources available to postdoctoral fellows in rheumatology, substantial growth and enhancement of the program faculty, and a highly competitive pool of applicants (including women and under-represented minorities) that significantly exceed currently available slots. The program has very engaged and highly expert internal and external advisory committees. Members of the program faculty have a breadth of interests and expertise, and are proven mentors in the rheumatic diseases, immunology, molecular biology and genetics, cell biology, epidemiology and biostatistics. The overall goal of this program remains the development of outstanding academic rheumatologists, through rigorous instruction in research methodology and immersion in outstanding quality mentored research projects. Our training environment is focused on providing a productive clinical, basic and translational research training program. The following specific aims will be pursued: [1] Provide rigorous training in investigational methods to rheumatology postdoctoral fellows, applicable to the conduct of both clinical and basic research; [2] Utilize clinical centers of excellence to provide access to well-defined rheumatic disease patient populations, enabling fellow projects to be conducted on established patient cohorts; [3] Engage postdoctoral fellows in high caliber research projects addressing important questions under the supervision of nationally renowned faculty; [4] Integrate multi-layered mentorship for each postdoctoral fellow to accomplish productive research, independence, and development of a successful academic career; and [5] Assess, and modify (through incorporating feedback from trainees, training program faculty, and internal and external advisory committees) as needed, the outcomes of this training environment through assessing benchmarks of academic and programmatic achievement, including peer-reviewed publications, external research funding, post-training academic position, and recruitment of underrepresented minorities.