Mentoring in Translational Research in Interstitial Lung Diseases



 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a proposal to provide protected time for Dr. Drake to provide greater mentoring to junior clinical investigators as well as increase her capacity to expand her clinical investigations in interstitial lung disease. Dr. Drake proposes a mentoring plan which will facilitate the effective transition from junior clinical investigator to research scientist. She provides a detailed description of her own augmentation of further training in clinical trial implementation. Her current research projects are thematically linked through their focus on molecular and immunologic determinants of sarcoidosis clinical outcome for the purpose of identifying novel therapeutic interventions. In particular, her research focuses on the contribution of mycobacterial induction of T cell dysfunction to sarcoidosis disease progression, and the capacity of antimycobacterial therapy to restore T cell function. Trainees have been involved in many aspects of the ongoing patient-oriented research including study design, patient accrual, data collection, laboratory assays and analysis and presentation of findings. The transformative nature of the proposal to investigate the therapeutic utility of PD-1 is that it allows translation of molecular mechanisms identified at the bench to immune function within the host, and ultimately to a clinical endpoint associated with sarcoidosis mortality, absolute FVC.