ABSTRACT
This proposal is designed to address the critical workforce need for physician and scientist investigators in
respiratory related disorders. To develop such investigators, we seek support for an educational curriculum
designed to meet the special research training needs of emerging, talented pulmonary, allergy, or critical care
medicine postdoctoral PhD trainees and MD fellows. The program will include high standards of research that
span the entire spectrum comprising fundamental discovery science, early translational research, clinical
investigations, population science research, and translational research, thereby moving fundamental
discoveries into clinical and public health practice in real-world settings. We aim to ensure success by
proposing an innovative program that contains both fundamental core elements yet adapts to the individual
needs of each trainee. Our program builds on: 1- Lessons learned from our own experience in running a
successful KL2 program with a high rate of transitioning scholars to independent academic careers at an early
stage, 2- A highly successful innovative research-oriented medical school program, 3- Strong pulmonary,
allergy, and critical care MD fellowship programs and strong PhD doctoral programs which provide a large pool
of qualified applicants, and 4- Proven strategies from published national studies on mentorship and
approaches recommended by these studies to attract and retain promising young people, especially
underrepresented minorities, in research. Our T32 Program has the following AIMS: Aim 1: To provide
postdoctoral (MD, PhD, MD/PhD) trainees who are engaged in pulmonary, allergy or critical care medicine and
research with multidisciplinary didactic training, coupled to a team mentored research experience. Aim 2: To
enhance the ability of trainees to work as part of an integrated, multidisciplinary team by developing a
knowledge base and skills in research methods, communication skills, professionalism, the ethical conduct of
research and rigorous analysis of reproducible findings. Aim 3: To recruit, retain and accelerate the
independent career development of a pool of young investigators with the multidisciplinary skills necessary for
an independent research career in basic, clinical, translational or population health research. Once they
complete our highly adaptive program, trainees will have the knowledge and skills to pursue outstanding
cutting-edge research careers and will be able to recognize the importance of different research paradigms,
ranging from molecular medicine to public health sciences, for rapidly translating scientific discoveries into
better diagnostics and therapeutics. This T32 proposal will fill an important gap in our existing research training
portfolio by providing structured research training. We anticipate that trainees supported by this program will be
engaged in experimental approaches, form mentor-trainee relationships and gain the additional research
experience needed to enhance competitiveness for independent research and career development awards.