Veterinary Student Research Training

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 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Veterinarians are broadly trained health professionals who are uniquely qualified to participate in biomedical research, having an understanding of health and disease in the context of the whole organism1,2. The "One Health" concept, integrating discoveries in both human and veterinary medicine, has received increased attention with the emergence of zoonotic pathogens as well as increasingly common chronic aging conditions such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes mellitus. As translational research with animal models continue to expand to approximately half of all current NIH research projects1, veterinarians, particularly those with research training, make increasingly valuable contributions to biomedical research.3 Two reports by National Academy of Sciences National Research Council Committees concluded that there is a critical shortage of such veterinarians4,5. For example, the lack of an adequate number of comparative pathologists, physiologists, laboratory animal veterinarians, and other veterinary specialists to evaluate genetically engineered mice has resulted in erroneous publications in which normal anatomic structures were interpreted as lesions.1 Texas A&M University is prepared to expand our current summer research training program for veterinary students. The goal of our summer Veterinary Scholar Research Program (VSRP) is to introduce veterinary students very early in their veterinary training to the biomedical research environment, facilitating trainees to discover research as an exciting career option. In this competitive renewal, the program will be led by a new Program Director, a reconfigured Advisory Committee, and 39 research mentors. The summer program includes: 1) research in a mentor's laboratory, emphasizing the "One Health" approach to a biomedical research problem; (2) a weekly lunch meeting of seminars on topics related to research ethics and scientific and professional development, or journal clubs discussing peer-reviewed research papers; (3) participation in the annual CVM research symposium; and 4) presenting a research poster at the National Veterinary Scholars Symposium. The program has exceptional institutional support and a broad array of state-of-the-art facilities, including preclinical GLP lbs, a national biodefense lab, primate center, strong institutional collaborations, and a recently funded DHHS Biodefense vaccine center. A major obstacle to the efforts of academic institutions to produce more research veterinarians is the difficulty of providing adequate salary sources to introduce trainees to research. The training positions provided by this T35 would assist recruiting efforts, increase numbers of veterinarians in research, and help alleviate this national shortage.