Career Enhancement

PROJECT SUMMARY (Career Enhancement Core) Career enhancement of junior faculty (both MD and PhD) has been a priority for the CReATe Consortium through its first two cycles of funding, with our CReATe Scholars being successful in securing extramural funding, publishing results in high impact journals, advancing the scientific understanding of ALS and related disorders, securing junior faculty positions, and emerging as leaders within the Consortium and more broadly within the field. The goals of the CReATe Career Enhancement Core are to identify and select the most promising candidates who wish to pursue a career in rare disease research focused on ALS and related disorders; provide these CReATe Scholars with support, opportunities and an environment that is conducive to their successful career growth; and synergize the career enhancement activities of the CReATe Consortium with those of the Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network (RDCRN) and the neurological/neuroscience community more broadly. To these ends, we will provide each CReATe Scholar with an array of training, mentorship, resource and partnership opportunities, and empower each Scholar to tailor their career enhancement program to match their own unique needs. Available opportunities will include: (1) didactics, leveraging existing programs through the National CTSA program, NINDS Network of Excellence in Clinical Trials, NINDS Clinical Trials Methods Course, and the RDCRN R25 Rare Diseases Certificate Program, (2) mentorship, both local and remote; (3) networking, including opportunities for visiting rotations with investigators at other institutions; (4) travel stipends, to enable participation and presentation of results at national and international meetings; (5) access to CReATe resources (data repository, biorepository, St. Jude Cloud, etc.); and (6) participation in patient advocacy group and other strategic partner initiatives such as ALS Advocacy Day, scientific review committees, and patient support groups. The significance and impact of our training program will ultimately be judged by the career trajectories and accomplishments of the physician investigators and translational scientists whom we train.