Training Program in Immunology and Inflammation

ABSTRACT The Immunology and Inflammation training program at NYU Grossman School of Medicine (NYUGSoM) provides excellent pre-doctoral and post-doctoral training at the interface between immunology and human disease. The program trains students and postdoctoral fellows in basic immunology as well as its applications in host-pathogen interactions, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, and anti-tumor immunity. Innovative courses provide trainees with a foundation in the field and training in critical evaluation of data, and the students build on this foundation in the weekly immunology seminar series and journal club. Trainees develop their writing and presentation skills through participation in work-in- progress presentations, journal clubs, and an annual retreat. A critical element of training is research experience, and the training program currently has 30 faculty who are highly productive scientists with extensive mentoring experience. In addition, NYUGSoM is undertaking a major expansion of its immunology research base. The first two cycles of the program supported many highly successful trainees, and we propose to build on this success with a training program with 4 pre-doctoral and 2 post- doctoral positions. The long-term goal of the program is to train a new cadre of rigorous and creative researchers in the broad and interdisciplinary area of immunology and its relation to inflammatory processes. The successful trainees will be ideally positioned to contribute to the development of novel therapies to treat inflammatory diseases.