Sunday, May 11, 2025
5/11/2025
Training Program in Molecular and Integrative Physiological Sciences - Abstract We request ongoing support for years 46-50 of our interdisciplinary T32 training program in Molecular and Integrative Physiological Sciences (MIPS). Supporting 3 predoctoral and 7 postdoctoral trainees, this T32 integrates cellular & molecular biology, physical sciences & engineering, and data science & bioinformatics. This training program has been highly effective, as evidenced by its 15-year metrics: 66 of 68 T32 trainees remain in bioscience. Half are women; 10 are underrepresented minorities, URM. Predocs: 18 of 18 graduates remain in bioscience: 11 went on to postdoctoral training, 1 to MD training, 4 to academics, and 2 to biotech/health-care. Postdocs: 35 of 37 graduates remain in bioscience: 29 of 37 remain in academics, including 4 of 5 MDs. Of these graduates, 17 of 37 earned tenure-track faculty status at rank of assistant professor or higher, 6 of 37 are in biotech or healthcare research, one is in patent law and one in private medical practice. The rest remain in training. These 17 faculty-level graduates have garnered thus far 9 career development awards (e.g., ALA, AHA, Parker B. Francis, and others) as well as 6 F awards, 9 K awards, 17 R awards or equivalent. In 44 years of continuous support, we have never had an unfilled slot. To sustain such a complex, rich and successful T32 for such an extended period of time, we follow a simple formula: strategic succession planning, ongoing critical self-evaluation, and continuous scientific reinvention. Accordingly, in the next 5 years, we propose to: 1) expand our mentoring faculty from 11 to 18, of whom 8 are women; 2) transition seamlessly to the next leadership team; and 3) revamp our mentoring plan. Through a highly competitive and rigorous admission process, we select trainees with backgrounds in biology, medicine, engineering, physics, or data science on the basis of academic record, research potential, and commitment to interdisciplinary lung research. These trainees work side-by-side on problems at the intersection of pulmonary sciences and environmental exposures. These themes foster exceptional levels of collaboration among trainees guided by a faculty with diverse yet highly complementary expertise. For example, again and again over the years our faculty and trainees have invented transformative technologies that went on to become widely adopted –from the iron lung decades ago, to Fourier-transform traction microscopy, to single-cell genome-wide expression profiling using DNA-based barcodes with drop-based microfluidics. As such, our faculty and trainees remain at the cutting edge of technological innovation because they themselves help to create that cutting edge. These advances exemplify that the modern research team needs strong grounding in basic biology, genomics, bioengineering, biophysics, exposure assessment and population sciences, as well as increasingly sophisticated analyses of big data and bioinformatics. We adopt the approach that the modern trainee cannot be expected to do it all. Rather, he or she will need the strongest possible disciplinary foundation together with the tools to work effectively with others outside his or her own discipline.
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