Interdisciplinary Training Program in Skin Biology

Abstract We propose a new interdisciplinary skin biology training program at the University of California, Irvine. The Program builds on a strong group of skin biology mentors affiliated with a NIAMS-funded Skin Biology and Disease Research Core Center (UCI Skin). The goal is to develop skin biologists that will be highly skilled in integrating bioengineering, including imaging, and computation into their research to make discoveries in skin biology. The four trainees will be a mixture of graduate students (three slots), including MD-PhD students, and postdoctoral fellows (one slot), including dermatology residents pursuing postgraduate research training. The mentors include several investigators whose work focuses on skin biology and collaborating investigators from other scientific disciplines. Each trainee–irrespective of whether the primary mentor is a skin biologist or from an allied field–will pursue an interdisciplinary project at the intersection of skin biology and one of two cross-disciplines: systems biology or bioengineering/imaging. In their research activities, the trainees will be guided through dual mentoring by a skin biologist and a mentor from a complementary field. In addition to laboratory-based research training, the program includes lectures in skin biology and skin diseases, a weekly Skin Club for data presentations, seminar series, retreats and a yearly symposium. The program also offers a menu of career development activities that can be individually tailored to each trainee based on their interests and career goals.