CTSA Postdoctoral T32 at The Scripps Research Institute

Scripps Research is becoming a leader in the field of translational research. This leadership establishes itself on three strengths: the quality of its faculty, its outstanding and holistic training programs, and its interdisciplinary culture. Ours is one of the few institutions in the US where a basic science idea can be taken seamlessly to a drug candidate and a clinical trial. Reciprocally, we can also bring patients' data or specimens from the clinic to the most basic aspects of science, including genomics, structural biology, and chemistry. This translational ability requires early career scientists to be trained across disciplines and in many emerging areas of data acquisition and processing. These areas include single cell data acquisition, genomic studies, big data analysis, sophisticated biological measurements, and animal models, and ultimately a deep knowledge of the disease being studied. In addition to this interactive scientific multilayered education, our program benefits from integration of the post-doctoral training program within the larger educational goals of the Scripps Research CTSA, including interns, predoctoral students, and clinical research fellows. This mentee to mentor approach is exemplified by the pairing of each T32 postdoctoral scholar with two T32 predoctoral scholars, and a K12 scholar, and the T32 trainee summer supervision of interns from the SURF program. This aspect of our training program will be enhanced by an already existing mentorship structure and an added mentor training program. Our T32 funding will support three T32 postdoctoral trainees for 2-3 years and will train them for a successful career in translational science and medicine. A particular emphasis will be put on individual grant writing and submission to establish research independence. Translational science coursework, created and directed by SRTI research team leaders, will incorporate protocol design, literature review, ethical research practice, transdisciplinary teamwork, effective communication, and advanced translational methodologies.