University of Pittsburgh Training Program in Antimicrobial Resistance

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SUMMARY Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most pressing public health issues facing the world today. However, a paucity of local and national training opportunities dedicated to this field creates a critical gap that may impact our current and future ability to tackle antimicrobial resistance. Accordingly, we propose to establish the University of Pittsburgh Training Program in Antimicrobial Resistance (Pitt TPAR), which will train both graduate students and post-doctoral fellows in advanced studies of antimicrobial resistance. Key attributes of our exciting new program include the unparalleled resources and institutional support at the University of Pittsburgh, and the multidisciplinary focus, commitment, experience and funding of our training faculty. Our philosophy is that trainees should receive training that exposes them to a broad spectrum of advanced, cutting edge, and novel approaches used in antimicrobial research to best prepare them to become creative and independent investigators. Therefore, the overall objective of the Pitt TPAR is to provide a collaborative, interdisciplinary, and coordinated team-mentoring effort to trainees from diverse academic backgrounds to foster highly-skilled, independent investigators who have the technical, intellectual and leadership skills that will allow them to make major contributions to the antimicrobial resistance field. This will be accomplished through a co-mentorship structure, with one mentor being a strong content expert in the proposed area of research, with the other(s) to be drawn from a range of disciplines as determined by the area of study. The expertise of our mentors covers fields that are crucial for the comprehensive study of antimicrobial resistance, including i) pathogenesis and molecular mechanisms of resistance, (ii) microbial genomics (iii) the human microbiome, (iv) bioinformatics, (v) epidemiology and biostatistics, and (vi) infectious diseases modeling and simulation. We have designed a unique educational curriculum that will provide core training in antimicrobial resistance, and we will also nurture our trainee's oral and written presentation skills, and help them to establish a scientific network that will advance their career. Collectively, we believe that the Pitt TPAR is unique in that it will leverage concepts in drug resistance from diverse bacterial, fungal and viral systems, with the goal of educating trainees in fundamental concepts of resistance, and enable the utilization of common themes for their research.