Multi-Institutional Training in Genetic/Genomic Approaches to Sleep Disorders

描述（申请人提供）：睡眠医学是一门相对较新的学科。因此，很少有机构拥有足够数量的教员来提供单一的机构培训补助金。缺乏研究培训是睡眠医学领域利用当前科学机遇的主要障碍。有大量新科学机会的一个领域是遗传/基因组方法领域。这些都是开发个性化睡眠药物所需要的。许多睡眠障碍是可遗传的，尽管导致风险的基因变异在很大程度上是未知的。此外，最近在蠕虫、果蝇、斑马鱼和老鼠等许多物种中都发现了类似睡眠的状态。这些模型系统可用于确定在人类研究中发现的基因变异的功能意义。为了利用这些机会，提出了一项新的全国性努力。该计划的基础是一项多机构培训拨款，涉及三所机构——约翰霍普金斯大学、斯坦福大学和密歇根大学。该项目将由宾夕法尼亚大学（University of Pennsylvania）和这三个机构的研究员共同指导。宾夕法尼亚大学在睡眠研究培训方面经验最丰富，并拥有重要的管理和培训基础设施来支持该项目。该项目将重点培养下一代内科科学家。受训人员将在该计划的支持下接受为期三年的培训。所有受训者都将学习一门核心课程。这将使用已经投入使用的基于视频的新IT技术。核心课程包括以下内容：讲座

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Sleep medicine is a relatively new discipline. Hence, few institutions have the critical mass of faculty to mount a single institutional training grant. he lack of research training is a major barrier for the field of sleep medicine to take advantage of current scientific opportunities. One area where there are substantial opportunities for new science is in the field of genetic/genomic approaches. These are needed to develop personalized sleep medicine. Many sleep disorders are heritable, although the gene variants that confer risk are largely unknown. Moreover, recently sleep-like states have been identified in many species such as worms, fruit flies and zebra fish as well as mice. These model systems can be used to determine the functional significance of gene variants identified in human studies. To capitalize on these opportunities, a novel national effort is proposed. The basis of this is a multi-institutional training grant involving three institutions-Johns Hopkins, Stanford University and University of Michigan. The program will be directed by the University of Pennsylvania with fellows at each of these three institutions. The University of Pennsylvania has the most experience in research training in sleep and has significant administrative and training infrastructure to support this program. The program will focus on training the next generation of physician-scientists. Trainees will be given three years of training supported by this program. There will be a core curriculum that will be taken by all trainees. This will use new video-based IT technology that is already operational. The core curriculum will involve the following: lectures on genetics/genomics of sleep and its disorders by faculty at all participating institutions; caree development; grants workshop; journal club; research-in-progress talks by trainees. Each trainee will have co- mentors at their home institution-one expert in sleep research and one in genetics/genomics. They will also have a mentorship committee with experts in sleep research and genetics. For the mentorship committee, mentors from the various institutions in this program, as well as from institutions that currently have funded training programs in sleep research (Harvard, Penn, Pittsburgh) will be involved, if appropriate. Trainees who pursue genetic/genomic research at these other institutions will also be considered part of this national effort. There will be an annual retreat of all trainees and faculty. This will orient new trainees o research opportunities and allow more advanced trainees to present their research. There will also be keynote speakers selected by trainees. This retreat will facilitate interaction between the trainees at all the different sites. The goal of this national effort is to develop a cadre of new investigators in genetic/genomic approaches to sleep and its disorders.