Advanced Research Training in Physiology - Integrating Biology Across the Scales

The Advanced Research Training Course in Physiology, offered at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), operates for 6-weeks over the summer and is designed for advanced graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early career faculty. Innovations from new leadership serves as a platform for integrating scientific training across disciplines both horizontally (within the biological sciences) and vertically (with physics, engineering, and computational sciences). The Physiology course is often called “transformative”, a strong statement, verified each year in course reviews, conversations and accolades from students and faculty alike. Why? Because the scholars are empowered to pursue research at the very highest levels and set the stage for the next generation of leaders in the life sciences. Participants have access to state-of-the-art equipment and learn the fundamental principles upon which the technology is based. The faculty come from a variety of fields, adding to the interdisciplinarity of this hands-on experience. This in turn enables them to continue to pursue research questions that impact basic science knowledge, that lead to insights towards diverse applications. As a testament to their accomplishments, students have gone on to participate in Nobel Prize winning discoveries and breakthrough research findings that have influenced the bioeconomy in the US and beyond. The goal of the Physiology course is to enhance and expand training in the biological and physical sciences by focusing on modern cell biology, cell physiology, molecular biology, developmental biology, pathology, biophysics, bioengineering, and evolutionary genetics. The course structure includes a morning lecture, where students and prominent scientists from many disciplines come together to discuss current biological problems and approaches, as well as periodic seminars on research skills and technologies. Research rotations serve as the heart of the course, providing students opportunities to develop skills as interdisciplinary researchers. In addition, there is a focus on integrating theory to help transform interdisciplinary work. There are very few environments where experimentalists and theoreticians can spend the time to understand the language of each domain, including the scope and limitations of each set of approaches. For example: from a theoretical perspective, how important is a measured parameter predicted to be, and from an experimental perspective, what are the actual limits of making a measurement? Theorists and experimentalists working together must have a solid understanding of both of these questions and answers. Each research module will be led by both experimental and theoretical or computational faculty. In this way, students will design experiments with a predictive theoretical framework, which can be leveraged to understand the underlying mechanisms through an iterative process of conceptual and theoretical refinement. The goal is to weave quantitative analysis and theory into experiments, and vice versa, such that they continuously interplay with one another from the beginning. This award is co-funded by the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems and the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.