Molecular and Chemical Pharmacology Training Grant

描述(申请人提供)：本次申请资助化学和分子药理学培训计划是斯坦福大学分子药理学系为应对分子和结构生物学在过去十年中异常迅速的发展而开展的一项新事业。虽然在过去的几十年里，该系有一个非常成功的研究生项目--它的几名毕业生现在可以在学术机构和工业中找到领导职位--但最近生物科学知识的爆炸性增长清楚地表明，为了在未来的药理学职业生涯中取得成功，需要一套新的概念和技能。全基因组测序和无数蛋白质和信号转导途径的初步表征正在定义未来的药理学：研究复杂和微妙平衡的细胞调控网络，以及药物如何影响和确实影响它们。为了充分实现这一未来，将需要应用严格的量化方法和概念--物理、化学、系统分析和信息学的方法和概念。因此，它还需要吸引一种不同类型的学生进入这个领域，一个对定量科学有兴趣和能力的学生。如果药理学学科要迎接这一挑战，它必须制定研究生培训计划，预测并传达从目前阶段推进该领域所需的知识。斯坦福大学分子药理学系以其强大的创新传统为基础，因此正在实施一项双轨研究生计划。第一个轨道强调分子生物学、细胞生物学和医学药理学，以认识到现有的分子生物学方法在发现和分析生命过程方面仍然有很大的希望。第二个轨道更加强调严格的定量分析方法，承认这是解决下一代问题和完成药理学作为与药物作用机制有关的科学的使命所需的分析类型。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The present application for support of the Chemical and Molecular Pharmacology Training Program represents a new venture undertaken by the Stanford Department of Molecular Pharmacology in response to the extraordinarily rapid advances in molecular and structural biology over the past ten years. While the Department has had a very successful graduate program over the past decades--several of its graduates can now be found in leading positions in academic institutions and in industry--the recent explosive growth of knowledge in biological sciences has made it clear that a new set of concepts and skills will be needed for a successful career in Pharmacology in the future. The sequencing of whole genomes and the initial characterization of myriad proteins and signal transduction pathways is defining the pharmacology of the future: the study of intricate and delicately-balanced cell regulatory networks, and of how drugs can and do impinge upon them. To fully bring this future to fruition will require the application of rigorous quantitative methods and concepts--those of physics, chemistry, systems analysis and informatics. It will therefore also require the attracting of a different type of student to the field, a student with interests and abilities in quantitative science. If the discipline of Pharmacology is to meet this challenge, it must develop graduate training programs that anticipate and convey the knowledge required to advance the field from its present stage. Building on its strong tradition of innovation the Stanford Department of Molecular Pharmacology is therefore implementing a two-track graduate program. The first track emphasizes molecular biology, cell biology, and medical pharmacology, in recognition of the fact that established molecular biological methods still hold a great deal of promise for discovery and analysis of life's processes. The second track places greater emphasis on rigorous quantitative methods of analysis, in recognition of the fact that this is the type of analysis required to solve the next generation of problems and fulfill the mission of Pharmacology as the science concerned with mechanisms of drug action.