T32 for Training in Microbiology & Infectious Diseases

PROJECT SUMMARY This proposal is the resubmission of the first competing renewal application for five years of funding to support Training in Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at UC Irvine. The primary objective of this Training Program is to provide doctoral students with integrated training in three focus areas: 1) microbial structure and metabolism, 2) microbe-host interactions, and 3) microbial communities. The rationale behind this training structure is that there will be tremendous value in individuals with fluency in these related areas that are vital to combating and/or exploiting microbes to positively impact human health and the environment. The Training Program will leverage areas of excellence at UCI in microbial ecology, microbe-host interactions, and structural biology to bring together faculty trainers with expertise in microbial pathogenesis, molecular genetics, metabolism, structure, immunity and infectious diseases, and microbial diversity. The program will be comprised of 20 well-funded training faculty (9 women, 11 men, of which 3 are URM faculty) from the Schools of Biological Sciences, Medicine, and Physical Sciences at UCI. The faculty mentors conduct research on microbiology and infectious diseases at the molecular, cellular, organismal, population, and microbiome community levels. UCI has a strong history in microbiology, infectious disease, and microbiome research. The Training Program will ensure that the trainees will be equipped with the necessary tools and expertise to pursue a productive and independent career in microbiology. In the renewal, there is a new emphasis in data science and bioinformatics to reflect the evolving needs in the microbiology field. In addition to faculty mentorship, the trainees will benefit from seminars, journal clubs, research in progress talks, an annual career panel, outreach events, and an annual symposium. Trainees will also receive funds to travel to and present their research at a national meeting in their field. Finally, UCI is home to the NIH-funded GPS-STEM program, which will ensure that trainees have exposure to career development seminars, workshops, and mentorship throughout their training. The renewal application requests support for four predoctoral trainees, who will be drawn from students who enroll at UCI through one of several gateway or departmental programs. In our last funding period, the mean GPA of appointed trainees was 3.90, reflecting a strong overall academic performance by the potential trainees. All appointed trainees who have graduated have remained in a science-related field. Notably, 66.7% of our trainees were URM students during the last funding period. UCI has been recognized as a Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) and an Asian American, Native American, and Pacific Islander serving institution (AANAPISI), and the Training Program is expected to reflect this rich cultural and ethnic diversity on the UCI campus.