Program in Human and Molecular Genetics

 描述(由申请人提供)：本申请是对贝勒医学院分子和人类遗传学博士前培训项目的5年续期支持。分子和人类遗传学系遵循三个原则，指导贝勒医学院追求创新的生物医学：研究、教育和服务。这个项目的使命是培养研究生学习古典和现代遗传学的基本原理，并将这些原理应用于生物医学的创新。我们的目标是为学生提供严格和有条不紊的遗传学培训，同时强调研究和学术卓越，并帮助他们成为下一代生物医学科学家的领导者。该项目目前有83名博士前学生，我们预计每年将有14-16名新学生开始他们在该系的研究生工作。教师导师的人数为70人，他们从事的研究项目涉及广泛的兴趣，包括人类遗传学、基因组学、人类疾病的分子基础、人类疾病的动物模型、微生物遗传学、发育、神经生物学、基因组稳定性和DNA复制。这些不同话题的共同主题是对遗传学的兴趣和将研究结果应用于人类健康。参加该项目的学生将在培训的第一年参加课程并进行实验室轮换。这些课程为学生提供了足够的背景知识来设计和分析基于基因的实验结果，而轮换则提供了个性化的研究体验。这些学生还参加了在基因组时代进行负责任的研究和人类遗传学伦理方面的专门培训。在第二年，学生们加入一个研究实验室，在那里他们在一名教师导师的监督下开展一个研究项目。他们还参加资格考试，以测试他们整合课程和文学知识的能力，以及设计原创 实验研究项目。除了实验工作的培训外，学生们还学习如何分析他们的数据和撰写描述他们工作的论文，以及如何参与科学研究 以合议性和建设性的方式处理这一问题。论文项目的最后阶段是论文的准备和答辩。该项目获得博士学位的平均时间为5.9年，平均每个学生发表的论文数量为4.24篇，平均有2篇第一作者论文。目前这笔赠款的培训职位数量为10个，但由于NIGMS预算限制，我们每年只收到9个。在过去的5年里，我们的申请者人数几乎翻了一番，在过去的3年里，我们的流失率下降到了零。我们要求将职位数量增加到14个。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application is a request for a 5-year renewal of support for the Predoctoral Training Program in Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine. The Department of Molecular and Human Genetics follows three principles that guide the pursuit of innovative biomedicine at Baylor College of Medicine: Research, Education and Service. The mission of this program is to train graduate students in the fundamentals of classical and modern genetics and in applying these principles to innovation in biological medicine. Our objectives are to provide students with rigorous and methodical training in genetics while emphasizing research and academic excellence, and to help them become leaders among the next generation of biomedical scientists. There are currently 83 predoctoral students in the program and we expect that 14-16 new students will initiate their graduate work in the department each year. The number of faculty mentors is 70 and they pursue research projects that span a wide range of interests, including human genetics, genomics, the molecular basis of human disease, animal models of human disease, microbial genetics, development, neurobiology, genome stability, and DNA replication. The common theme of these varied topics is the interest in genetics and the application of the findings to human health. Students who enter the program spend the first year of their training taking courses and doing laboratory rotations. The courses provide students with sufficient background to design and analyze the results of genetic-based experiments and the rotations provide individualized research experiences. The students also participate in specialized training in the responsible conduct of research and in ethical aspects of human genetics in the genomic era. In the second year, students join a research laboratory in which they carry out a research project under the supervision of one of the faculty mentors. They also take a qualifying examination that tests their ability to integrate knowledge from courses and from the literature and to design an original experimental research project. In addition to training in experimental work, students learn how to analyze their data and write papers describing their work, and how to participate in the scientific process in a collegial and constructive way. The thesis project culminates in the preparation and defense of a thesis dissertation. The average time to a PhD degree in the program is 5.9 years and the average number of publications is 4.24 per student, with 2 first-author papers on average. The current number of training positions on this grant is 10, but we have received only 9 every year due to NIGMS budget restrictions. In the past 5 years our applicant pool has almost doubled and our attrition rate has declined to zero in the past 3 years. We are asking to increase the number of positions to 14.