TB Research And Mentorship Program (TB RAMP)

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Summary/Abstract: The TB Research And Mentorship Program (TB RAMP) prepares early-stage investigators (post-doctoral fellows, clinical fellows, junior faculty) from University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and UC Berkeley for successful careers in tuberculosis (TB) research. Through this research education program focused on TB, we promote and catalyze collaborations between existing faculty across disciplines (infectious diseases, pulmonary medicine, experimental medicine, systems biology, genomics, immunology, health economics, pharmacy, nursing, implementation sciences, diplomacy and policy, global health, etc.); attract and cultivate scholars and junior investigators in the TB field; and strengthen TB research expertise regionally and globally. TB RAMP leverages the extensive NIH-funded training resources at UCSF to have a significant and lasting impact on the conduct of global TB research, as well as on innovations in TB discovery, care and control. Specific Aim 1: The TB Science Intensive. A two-week TB Science Intensive (TBSI) curriculum will be developed and delivered annually to TB RAMP scholars to provide the core concepts and methodologies of TB research and includes skill building in TB RAMP scholars’ own interests and research methods area. The TBSI is enhanced through delivering content expertise to address TB scientific knowledge gaps and to allow TB RAMP scholars to develop their own research protocols for subsequent grants. Specific Aim 2: Research Experiences and Awards Program (REAP). Match scholars with research opportunities through existing transdisciplinary network of research mentors, faculty, and sites, and support innovative research projects linked to peer-reviewed awards. Identified program faculty with extensive research experience and opportunities will be paired with scholars interested in TB research. Research infrastructure at UCSF spans genomics laboratories to state public health departments. Faculty also have collaborations in high burden settings across Asia, Africa, and the Americas that will provide TB RAMP scholars access to data, biospecimens, and opportunities to network with faculty from sites in high-burden settings. Scholars will compete for intramural, peer-reviewed seed funding opportunities. The goal of the REAP is to provide TB research experiences that expand or extend the existing skills of scholars, to provide opportunity for meaningful contribution to research related to the NIAID mission, directly addressing the NIAID Strategic Plan for TB Research. Specific Aim 3: Mentoring Activities. Provide structured, high- quality, sustained mentoring for all scholars enrolled in the program, differentiated into two tracks to provide personalization and specialization; Track 1: Basic and Translational Science and Track 2: Clinical and Operational Science. Creating and nurturing a strong set of mentoring relationships is essential to both core components of TB RAMP, as is developing a rich set of research networks that can support TB RAMP scholars throughout their careers. TB RAMP scholars will have the opportunity for additional mentoring from our international partnered PIs via remote communication.