ABSTRACT
Early stage pediatric faculty members, even those who have potential for success as academic investigators
based upon substantial experience in basic research, will require further intensive training and mentoring in basic
research to successfully embark upon an independent research career. Our proposed Child Health Research
Career Development Award (CHRCDA) Program entitled “Developing Diverse Physician-Investigator Leaders
for the Future of Child Health” will provide a cutting-edge research opportunities, combined with a carefully
constructed mentoring and career development pathway, to enable our Scholars to emerge as leaders among
the ranks of pediatric academic investigators. The basic biomedical research training community at the University
of California San Diego (UCSD) has a long-established reputation of excellence, and UCSD Pediatrics now ranks
in the top five in NIH research funding of all Pediatric Departments in the country. Notably, the last 5-10 years
have witnessed an impressive academic expansion within of the UCSD Department of Pediatrics and the
research it conducts, coupled with the formalization of its partnership with Rady Children's Hospital San Diego,
the largest Children's Hospital in California. The key objectives of our CHRCDA are as follows: (1) To increase
the number Pediatrician-Scientists engaged in basic research as applied to children's health; (2) to attract
outstanding young pediatricians to UCSD and to facilitate their career development under the guidance of world
class, established investigator-faculty mentors; and (3) to cultivate the early careers of women and minority
investigators in children's health. With close input from the program pioneers in our Department, CHRCDA
Scholars will participate fully in the program of UCSD National Center for Leadership in Academic Medicine
(NCLAM), a longstanding and highly successful junior faculty mentoring program in UC Health Sciences that
provides workshops and longitudinal mentoring in all facets required for successful advancement in academic
medicine, and diversity enrichment modules including the Border Health and Doc-for-A-Day programs. All
CHRCDA program faculty mentors are highly regarded scientific investigators, each leading a vibrant and
cutting-edge basic or basic/translational research program of strong relevance to pediatric medicine. Research
training opportunities for CHRCDA Scholars are organized into six research themes of five members each, which
an integral role in the program structure, curriculum and mentorship approach: (1) Genomics, Big Data &
Systems Biology; (2) Infection, Immunity & Inflammation; (3) Organ Physiology & Metabolism; (4) Neuroscience
& Brain Development; (5) Human Microbiome & Child Health; and (6) Developmental & Stem Cell Biology. A
guiding philosophy of this CHRCDA will be to support the greatest possible number of young physician-scientists
within this Program, and an additional year of Department-funded support has been added to three years of K12
support to create a vibrant program with one new Scholar per year and four fellows total in the steady state.