Interdisciplinary Training in Pain Research

描述(由申请人提供)：慢性疼痛是医疗保健提供中的一个重要问题，影响到1.16亿美国人，保守成本为5600亿美元。这项申请寻求对爱荷华大学疼痛研究跨学科培训计划的重新支持。该方案在增加培训者之间的合作以及指导具有模范质量的博士前和博士后学员以独立的资金和职业方面取得了极大的成功。该计划将继续研究缓解急性和慢性疼痛的细胞、分子、药理学、生理学和解剖学机制，同时进一步加强在上一次获奖期间开始的临床和翻译工作。16名核心项目教员是由美国国立卫生研究院资助的研究人员，他们在分子、细胞和系统神经生物学领域拥有互补的专业知识。它们包括基础科学家和内科科学家以及以病人为基础的研究的平衡代表。每个培训师都有良好的博士后和博士后培训记录，并将指导一批前景光明的初级培训师。在本授奖期间，请为两名博士后和两名博士后实习生提供支持。根据我们加强翻译研究的目标，博士后职位将主要面向MD、MD/PhD、PT/PhD或DPT实习生，但也将接受对翻译研究有浓厚兴趣的博士实习生。这些个人将受益于一段受保护的时间来学习 研究要素和/或在教员级别的任命之前重新启动他们的研究计划。两名护士科学家继续担任兼职培训师，在上一次获奖期间开发的临床和翻译研究计划中寻求合作。在下一个资助期，该计划建议与临床和转化科学研究所的成员建立更牢固的关系，这些成员在以患者为中心的结果研究和比较有效性研究方面拥有专业知识。这种方法将为培训计划招募新的教师，并增加对临床医生的吸引力。该培训计划提供高度结构化和多样化的教学课程，包括每月研讨会、每周一次的期刊俱乐部和两周一次的工作进展会议，并在高度协作和互动的环境中进行研究培训。建立了所有课程以及互动机制和学员评价机制。培训计划的总体目标是为我们的学员提供(1)提供与其职业规划相适应的坚实知识基础的个性化课程；(2)科学调查要素方面的严格培训，包括研究假设的制定、实验设计和分析；(3)掌握两到三种研究技巧；(4)发展他们的口头交流能力；(5)构建手稿和拨款提案的经验；以及(6)与机构内外积极从事研究的基础和临床研究人员互动和合作的能力。该项目的学员将获得成功过渡到学术界、工业界或政府的独立研究生涯所需的知识、经验和技能。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chronic pain is a significant issue in health care delivery, affecting 116 million Americans at a conservative cost of $560 billion. This application seeks renewal of support for an interdisciplinary training program in pain research at the University of Iowa. The program has been highly successful in terms of increasing collaborations among trainers and mentoring pre- and postdoctoral trainees of exemplary quality to independent funding and careers. The program will continue to study the cellular, molecular, pharmacological, physiological and anatomical mechanisms that subserve acute and chronic pain while further strengthening the clinical and translational work begun during the previous award. The 16 core program faculty are NIH-funded investigators with complementary expertise in the fields of molecular, cellular and systems neurobiology. They comprise a balanced representation of basic and physician scientists, as well as bench and patient-based research. Each trainer has a strong record of training both predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows and will also mentor a subset of junior trainers of great promise. Support is requested for two predoctoral and two postdoctoral trainees for this award period. In line with our goal to strengthen translational research, the postdoctoral positions will be primarily targeted for MD, MD/PhD, PT/PhD or DPT trainees, but will also accept PhD trainees with a strong interest in translational research. These individuals will benefit from a period of protected time to learn the elements of research and/or to restart their research programs in advance of a faculty level appointment. Two nurse scientists continue as adjunct trainers to pursue collaborations in clinical and translational research programs developed in the last award period. In the next funding period, the program proposes to build a stronger relationship with members of the Institute for Clinical and Translational Science who have expertise in patient-centered outcomes research and comparative effectiveness research. This approach will recruit new faculty to the training program and increase attractiveness to clinicians. The training program provides a highly structured and diverse program of didactic coursework, including monthly seminars, weekly journal clubs and biweekly work-in-progress meetings, that is coupled with research training in a highly collaborative and inter-active environment. All courses, as well as mechanisms of interaction and trainee evaluation are established. The overall goal of the training program is to provide our trainees with (1) an individualized curriculum that provide a solid knowledge base appropriate to their career plans; (2) rigorous training in the elements of scientific investigation including the formulation of research hypotheses, experimental design and analysis; (3) mastery of two to three research techniques; (4) opportunities to develop their verbal communication skills; (5) experience in the construction of manuscripts and grant proposals; and (6) the ability to interact and collaborate with basic and clinical investigators boh within and outside the institution who are actively engaged in research. Trainees in this program will acquire the knowledge, experience, and skill sets necessary for successful transition to an independent research career in academia, industry or government.