Research and Career Training for Cellular, Biochemical and Molecular Scientists

Project Summary As the current trend in medical schools is to reduce the amount of basic science being taught after undergraduate training, it is more important than ever to maintain and expand basic science knowledge through graduate-level scientific research training, especially in the fields of cellular, biochemical, and molecular (CMB) sciences. Without constantly expanding our knowledge of how cells work at the most basic level, it will become impossible to continuously develop novel treatments or cures. It is also now becoming clear that one field can no longer work independently from others, and multi-disciplinary approaches are needed to understand the ever-expanding complexity of biology. Our two-year training program, for second- and third-year PhD students (4 per/year), brings together researchers from nine different departments/ programs at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and School of Dental Medicine at the University at Buffalo, with the primary goal of assembling a list of talented, interdisciplinary mentors, who use a broad array of CMB techniques to answer wide-reaching experimental questions. Providing CMB-specific training across many types of research areas will allow trainees to establish foundational research techniques while still pursuing a topic of interest. As training in CMB sciences prepares students for a vast array of career opportunities, but the scope of these opportunities is not always fully understood by students or mentors, we also want to couple scientific training with career development training targeted specifically to CMB students and their mentors. The second goal of this training program is to provide a career development class that will aid trainees in discovering their interests, realizing their abilities, cataloging their skills, and creating their brand. We will then show them how to translate this awareness into a personalized career choice. Finally, our third goal is to integrate mentors into the career development process by teaching them how to prepare trainees for diverse career opportunities and how to advocate for trainees at all stages of their careers. We believe that providing Ph.D. candidates with earlier and more thorough career development training will help them better understand the value of their degree and the array of opportunities available to them upon its completion. We also believe that integrating mentors into the career development process will help them provide discipline-specific training and produce trainees, both current and future, who are more confident of their place and value in the biomedical workforce.