MDSRC Training Core

Abstract The outstanding training environment in muscle disease pathogenesis and treatment that exists in Columbus, Ohio at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) and The Ohio State University (OSU) today is difficult to rival and arguably unsurpassed in any other city of the world. In addition to being an epicenter for gene therapy of neuromuscular disease, Columbus is also home to a remarkable number of scientists and clinicians (in the OSU/NCH Center of Muscle Health and Neuromuscular Diseases) that have for years been providing key leadership and training for trainees at all levels. Trainees include high school students (NCH Futures Matter program for underrepresented and underprivileged students); undergraduate/post-bac students (OSU Discovery PREP program to assist underrepresented minorities in gaining admittance to post-graduate schools); graduate students and post-docs (a NIH T32 training program at OSU and the NCH Research Institute Trainee Association, RITA); and early-stage physician scientists at NCH/OSU in Neurology and Gene Therapy (neuromuscular fellowships). This training milieu in Columbus provided the foundation for the emergence of the NCH/OSU Myology Course, which was initiated in 2012 under the leadership of Dr. Kevin Flanigan (overall PI of this Wellstone application), and has been operating yearly ever since. Dr. Flanigan led a grassroots effort of Muscle Center faculty to develop this program, which accepts approximately 60 trainees per year for an intensive one-week course that includes morning lectures followed by afternoon wet lab electives (for PhD trainees) or clinical training (for MDs). To date, more than 700 trainees have attended this course, with many continuing on to high profile roles in muscle research. Attendees have come from 9 countries and 32 US States, representing >100 different institutions worldwide, including 18 of the top 20 US Medical Schools), 8 of 8 Ivy League Schools, and several NIH Institutes. This unique Myology Course – and our efforts to improve and expand it - will be the centerpiece of our Training Core, and we will leverage it and our Muscle Center to benefit the entire Wellstone community and the greater neuromuscular field. In addition to the Myology Course, our Specific Aims were also designed to support individualized training of Wellstone fellows, promote trainee career advancement, recruit the best and brightest minds to the neuromuscular disease field, and organize new training courses and workshops to benefit the entire Wellstone community as well as the greater scientific community as a whole.