Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Training Program

This proposal describes a Type I stem cell training program including a School of Medicine, a Division of Biological Sciences, a School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and a School of Engineering. This program is designed to provide interdisciplinary training in stem cell biology and medicine by taking advantage of the unique interdisciplinary and inter-institutional environment. A major goal is to train a cadre of young basic and clinical scientists and engineers in the use of quantitative and engineering approaches from the physical sciences such as chemistry, computation, and materials science to make novel discoveries in basic and clinical biomedicine. Basic and clinical science and engineering trainees who complete our program will be ideally suited for future careers as academic or industrial scientists investigating stem cell biology and medicine, or using stem cell based methods to develop new therapeutic approaches to human diseases. Our approach will be to build on each trainee’s specialized foundation of basic or clinical knowledge and provide: •Rigorous education in the principles and applications of embryonic and adult stem cell biology from humans and model organisms •Research training in physical, computational, and engineering methods that can be used to harness stem cells to attack problems of basic and clinical science and their uses to develop new understanding and new therapies •Education in the problems and outlooks associated with the ethical, legal, social, and economic issues associated with stem cell biology Our training program will also serve as a catalyst for the integration of our expanding stem cell biology research and training efforts. Our training is structured to take advantage of the [REDACTED] scientific and medical community by engaging in collaboration with three other institutions. We are requesting financial support for 16 trainees (6 graduate, 5 postdoctoral, 5 clinical fellow).