Transdisciplinary Training in Sleep and Circadian Research

ABSTRACT This proposal is for the competing continuation of the Colorado Transdisciplinary Training in Sleep and Circadian Rhythms T32 program. The primary aim is to prepare outstanding pre-(PhD) and post-(PhD, MD/PhD, MD) doctoral fellows for science careers that address cutting-edge basic and clinical research questions that represent the future of biomedical research. The training program will foster transdisciplinary research with state- of-the-art technologies and rigorous methods used by participating faculty laboratories and will evaluate and enhance the mentoring skills of faculty. The program is novel in that it exposes trainees and faculty from diverse biomedical research backgrounds to collaborative sleep and circadian science. Similarly, current sleep and circadian trainees and expert faculty benefit from meaningful interactions with investigators from different research backgrounds, particularly those from biomedical research areas that are of high importance to the NIH/NHLBI. The program will train three pre-doctoral and two post-doctoral fellow positions yearly. The research training activities of the 21 participating faculty emphasize transdisciplinary training in sleep and circadian rhythms with research programs based in physiology and analysis across major levels of physiological organization from molecules to the whole organism physiology including: genetics/genomics, microbiome, metabolomics, proteomics, sleep, circadian rhythms, cardiovascular, stress physiology, neuroscience/neurology, immunology, endocrinology, metabolism, and integrated physiology. Faculty research activities also include biomarker development, computational biology/bioinformatics, biomathematical modeling, mechanistic and intervention clinical trials, and study of pediatrics/development, aging, epidemiology, obesity, diabetes, mental health, and pulmonary sciences and critical care. Because our goal is to provide transdisciplinary and translational research career training, major program components of this T32 include the Department of Integrative Physiology, the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, and the Institute for Behavioral Genetics at University of Colorado Boulder, multiple clinical departments and divisions at University of Colorado School of Medicine Anschutz Medical Campus and the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics at the Colorado School of Mines and the Department of Health and Exercise Sciences at Colorado State University. The existing fruitful and collaborative environment is a strength of this training grant. Of the existing T32s in Colorado, this is the only one dedicated to transdisciplinary sleep and circadian science and represents the only formal T32 sleep and circadian science training program in the western United States.