South Texas Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Disorders Training Program

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A predoctoral T32 training program is proposed to augment the research workforce in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), related dementias (RD) and other neurodegenerative disorders (ND). The training initiative is named the South Texas Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Disorders Training Program: STAND TP. STAND TP is hosted by UT Health San Antonio (UTHSA), a Hispanic Serving Institution which plays a dominant role in health-care delivery to the residents of San Antonio and greater South Texas, the majority of whom are Hispanic. The overall goal of the STAND TP is to develop a diverse, computationally sophisticated, translational and cross-disciplinary research workforce to become leaders and members of cross-disciplinary research programs in AD, RD and ND. Modern medical science is team based and translational, with a workflow spanning orders of bioscale from genetics and molecular biology to systems physiology and health-care delivery. In the neurosciences, computer- based methods – including imaging, genetics, multi-omics and epidemiology – have become fundamental to the discovery process at preclinical and clinical levels, being used both as investigative tools and as biomarkers for staging study participants and as surrogate outcomes for assessing treatment efficacy. In tandem, computational approaches to image analytics have expanded in power and scope of application with the rapidly increasing availability of high-performance computer clusters and cloud computing. The future AD/RD/ND workforce needs expertise in all of these domains. To achieve the envisioned scope of expertise, STAND TP draws from four, well-established, PhD-granting programs: Integrated Biomedical Sciences (IBMS), Radiological Sciences (RADI), Biomedical Engineering (BME), and Translational Sciences (TS). Collectively, these four, thematically diverse programs enroll 40-50 doctoral-degree trainees per year, eight of whom are MD/PhD trainees from our T32-funded Medical Scientist Training Program. From this 4-program pool, STAND TP will recruit post- candidacy, pre-doctoral students who propose dissertation research topics in AD, RD or ND. Eligible applicants must be mentored by faculty investigators with expertise in AD/RD/ND and who have adequate funding to support the proposed research. The UTHSA AD/RD/ND research community is large and well-funded, commensurate with a longstanding, stable portfolio of NIH/NIA funding. UTHSA hosts three NIA P30 awards: an Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, a Nathan Shock Center, and a Pepper Center. Most P30-affiliated faculty have individual awards from NIA and other NIH institutes. Beyond the scope of each doctoral program, STAND TP mandates cross-disciplinary training including: coursework; a cross-disciplinary research experience via an innovative Core Clerkship program; and, scientific congress attendance. Training resources in the responsible conduct of research (RCR) and in methods to enhance scientific rigor and reproducibility (R&R) are well developed and mature. STAND TP is administrated by two PD/PIs, both of whom are ADRC core leaders, experienced training grant administers, and highly successful investigators and mentors.