Other Required Activities

The pre- and postdoctoral training periods represents a valuable opportunity for multidisciplinary training. The faculty of this Research Training Program have therefore established the requirement that each postdoctoral trainee attend the laboratory and journal club meetings of another laboratory outside their main research emphasis (i.e., basic scientists would attend meetings in a clinical research laboratory and vice versa). This training is recommended but not required for pre-doctoral trainees. 

This participation is intended to provide an ideal milieu for cross-fertilization of ideas that is so critical for the education of medical scientists for the 21st century, as well as for the facilitation of translational research. Trainees should speak with their faculty mentor to determine an appropriate fit and to gain introduction to the identified laboratory.

Each trainee develops her/his own specific set of research goals, and must complete an Individual Development Plan (IDP) to facilitate adequate directed progress in all aspects of training, including discussion of strategies to optimize career individual goals.

All trainees must submit a grant application for individual funding - typically an individual NRSA application. Postdoctoral fellows are required to submit such an application within the first six months of support by this Training Program; pre-doctoral trainees within 18 months. This requirement provides valuable experience in grant writing, and an opportunity to create openings for other qualified candidates to this Training Program.