Multidisciplinary T32 Research Training Program in Lung Disease

Since 1993, the Multidisciplinary Research Training Program in Lung Disease (NHLBI T32HL007749) is designed to train outstanding MD and PhD scientists for investigative careers as full-time members of a faculty of a medical school or university, or for careers in full-time research. The program constructed for MD trainees is integrated with their previous and concurrent clinical experiences to provide them with investigative tools to address important pulmonary disease-related questions. The program constructed for PhD trainees will provide a clinically relevant pulmonary and critical care medicine focus for their subsequent research careers.

The program offers personal instruction designed specifically for each trainee, as well as a core curriculum, small group workshops, seminars and courses, and opportunities for advanced degree training. This curriculum will provide the trainee with a broad knowledge of modern biomedical science, didactic and experiential training in the intellectual and philosophical approach to modern investigation, as well as develop writing and teaching skills and correct deficiencies in past scientific training.

The strongest asset of this training program is the quality of the faculty mentors and their commitment to a multidisciplinary and translational approach to research questions of common interest.

During the past several years, the scope of our Multidisciplinary Research Training Program in Lung Diseases has been expanded to introduce trainees to new major areas of modern biology, including genetics/genomics, metagenomics, proteomics, metabolomics, stem cell biology, computational biology, and the microbiome. Emerging fields of patient-oriented research have been added or expanded, including health services research and sleep medicine. Our program is truly multidisciplinary, as more than 50 participating faculty trainers are drawn from 6 different divisions and 16 different departments at the University.

Our trainees have been appointed to faculty positions in academic institutions including University of Michigan, Washington University, Northwestern University, Brown University, University of Utah, University of Toronto, University of Iowa, University of Pittsburgh, Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland, University of Calgary, University of Pennsylvania, University of California at Los Angeles, Medical College of Wisconsin, University of Texas-Southwestern, and Emory University.