PITTSBURGH PEDIATRIC RHEUMATOLOGY TRAINING GRANT

描述（由申请人提供）： 儿科流变学是最新和最小的儿科专科之一。该专业专注于儿童的肌肉骨骼和自身免疫性疾病，其中最常见的是青少年类风湿性关节炎。在美国，只有不到200名经过委员会认证的儿科风湿病学家为这一儿童群体提供服务。除了少数人之外，所有这些人都是不从事研究的临床医生。只有五个中心有三个或三个以上的教师;至少60所医学院没有儿科风湿病学家。虽然有一个公认的需要，以培养更多的儿科风湿病学家，特别是医生的科学家，只有一个NIH资助的培训计划，在儿科风湿病，据我们所知。因此，很少有儿科风湿病学家有研究导师和学术榜样，他们缺乏进行尖端研究的技能。匹兹堡儿童医院的儿科流变学部门在大量和持续的机构支持下，其目标是建立一个全国卓越的儿科流变学中心，提供全面的，最先进的临床护理，教育计划和涉及临床，转化和基础科学的竞争性研究。我们的中心任务之一是教育新一代的学术儿科风湿病学家谁可以发挥主导作用的专业作为医生科学家。我们打算通过在一个中心内提供培养这些人并确保他们成功所需的研究榜样，导师和丰富的环境来实现这一目标。该方案力求每年培训2名研究员。虽然许多小儿风湿性疾病与成人风湿性疾病不同，但两者以及其他自身免疫性疾病和涉及异常免疫反应的其他过程都有共同的病理生理途径。因此，我们的理念是采取多学科办法。这一战略在过去是成功和富有成效的。拟议的培训计划旨在为学员提供与儿科和成人风湿病学部门的研究人员以及医学中心内更广泛的免疫学社区互动的机会。计划教师已经选择谁拥有外部资金，谁擅长指导学员，其研究福尔斯分为四个类别之一：（1）儿科风湿性疾病研究，（2）一般风湿性疾病研究（儿科和成人），（3）自身免疫动物模型研究，和（4）判定与儿科风湿性疾病病理生理学相关的免疫生物学研究。许多教师参与了跨越这些类别中的一个以上的研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Pediatric Rheumatology is one of the newest and smallest of the pediatric subspecialties. The specialty focuses on musculoskeletal and autoimmune diseases of childhood, of which the most common is juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Serving this population of children are fewer than 200 board-certified pediatric rheumatologists in the United States. All but a handful of these are clinicians who do not engage in research. There are only five centers with three or more faculty; at least 60 medical schools have no pediatric rheumatologist on their faculty. Although there is a well-recognized need to train more pediatric rheumatologists, especially physician scientists, there exists only one NIH-funded training program in pediatric rheumatology, to our knowledge. As a result, few pediatric rheumatologists have had research mentorship and academic role models and they lack the skills to perform cutting edge research. The Division of Pediatric Rheumatology at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, with substantial and sustained institutional support, has as its goal the creation of a national center of excellence for Pediatric Rheumatology offering comprehensive, state-of-the-art clinical care, educational programs, and competitive research involving clinical, translational, and basic sciences. One of our central missions is to educate a new generation of academic pediatric rheumatologists who can play a leading role in the specialty as physician scientists. We intend to do so by providing, within a single center, the research role models, mentorship, and rich environment necessary for nurturing such individuals and ensuring their success. The Program seeks to train 2 fellows in each year of training. While many of the pediatric rheumatic diseases are distinct from those seen in adults, there are pathophysiologic pathways common to both, as well as to other autoimmune diseases and other processes involving aberrant immune responses. Therefore, our philosophy has been to pursue a multidisciplinary approach. This strategy has been successful and productive in the past. The proposed Training Program is structured to offer trainees the opportunity to interact with research faculty in the pediatric and adult rheumatology divisions and the broader immunology community within the medical center. Program Faculty have been chosen who have external funding, who excel in mentoring trainees, and whose research falls into one of four categories: (1) studies in pediatric rheumatic diseases, (2) studies in rheumatic diseases in general (both pediatric and adult), (3) studies in animal models of autoimmunity, and (4) immunobiological studies judged to be of relevance to the pathophysiology of pediatric rheumatic diseases. A number of faculty are involved in research spanning more than one of these categories.