Translational Training Program in Pulmonary Biology and Medicine

This competitive renewal occurs as our T32 Translational Training Program in Pulmonary Biology and Medicine enters its thirty-fifth year of training researchers, physician-scientists, and visionary leaders. The Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine (PACCSM) provides an outstanding training environment and mentorship pool with a critical mass of collaborative basic, translational, and clinical researchers in pulmonary biology and medicine led by internationally recognized scientists. Our goal is to train the next generation of academic leaders in pulmonary medicine, and our program is designed to provide outstanding education and cutting-edge research training with a comprehensive, structured, and individualized career development approach. Our T32 will leverage the expertise and commitment of our faculty with various research foci to ensure comprehensive training across the spectrum of pulmonary diseases using innovative technology, computational skill, extensive patient cohorts, databases, and biorepositories to impact lung health and train future pulmonary scientists. With eight postdoctoral trainee slots, our T32 places a significant emphasis on training physician-scientists as well as PhD scientists over a two- to three-year training period. The research training is a structured milestone-driven program that includes: a three-day, off-campus fellows research retreat; translational core competencies; academic survival skills series; optional month-long exposures to regulatory activities and drug development at Pitt start-ups; F/K-level and K-to-R grant workshops; a successful grant review program; academic coaching; and a rigorous program in responsible conduct of research. Our training plan is structured around individualized development plans that emphasize quantifiable outcomes (publications, career development awards, completion of didactic courses and graduate programs, transition to research and academic careers). The next generation of academic leaders in Pulmonary Medicine needs to have access to skills in evolving technologies at the bench, sophisticated computation and ‘omics approaches, well-curated large patient cohorts and accompanied data analytics. Our renewal offers several new initiatives including emphasizing the cross-cutting themes in lung diseases of aging, microbiome and infections, and immunology and inflammation. Other initiatives include dedicated statistical training, expanded training and collaborations in advanced computational and systems biology approaches, access to novel preclinical human-based lung tissue modeling techniques, and career coaching. We have the trainee pool, leadership, advisory boards, training faculty, and infrastructure to build on an already rich and successful translational training program and ensure continued development of the next generation of biomedical researchers in pulmonary disease.