Interdisciplinary Cardiovascular Training Grant
Program Director:
David Randall, Ph.D.
Co-Director: Alan
Daugherty, Ph.D.
Description
The University of Kentucky
Interdisciplinary Cardiovascular Training Program will equip young
investigators to pursue a long-term research and teaching career in the
cardiovascular sciences. The development of our training program over the ~4
years since its inception has been significantly strengthened by: (a) the
recent selection by the University of Kentucky central administration of the
cardiovascular sciences as an area for focused development; and (b) the
establishment of the Cardiovascular Research Center. These new developments
have provided our 31 training faculty, administratively housed in 11
academic departments, 3 Colleges and 3 Centers, with a tightly-knit
community framework within which to pursue collaborative research and to
mentor young scientists. We propose in this application to train 5
pre-doctoral fellows and 4 summer Minority Scholars. Our goal for the latter
group is to introduce them to the excitement of research and teaching as a
career option; we have been demonstrably successful in this endeavor to
date. Our goals for the predoctoral fellows are to:(a) provide rigorous,
state-of-the-art education in the basic sciences of the cardiovascular
system; (b) provide training in ethical conduct of high quality laboratory
research; (c) facilitate translational science by providing our trainees
with the requisite tools and experience to compete effectively in this
arena; and (d) create future citizens of science by fostering an
environment that promotes advocacy of research with highest ethical
standards. We accomplish this using a curriculum that combines formal
didactic courses, multiple offerings of weekly journal clubs focused upon
different aspects of the cardiovascular system, a weekly seminar series, and
special events such as our annual Cardiovascular Research Day. Our faculty
have extensive and demonstrable experience in co-mentoring of predoctoral
fellows; this particularly includes experience of senior faculty in
co-mentoring trainees with more junior faculty, thereby helping the latter
develop their own careers. The depth and quality of our applicant pool is
easily demonstrated by the 23 individuals with solid undergraduate GPA and
GRE scores that applied for the 11 positions we have offered to date.
Training Faculty
Douglas Andres, Biochemistry
Dennis Bruemmer,
Internal Medicine
Lisa Cassis, Nutritional
Sciences
Alan Daugherty, Internal
Medicine
Frederick de Beer, Internal
Medicine
Ming Gong, Physiology
Greg Graf, Pharmaceutical
Sciences
Bernhard Hennig, Animal
Sciences
Terry Lennie, College of Nursing
Charles Loftin, Pharmaceutical Sciences
Andrew Morris, Internal Medicine
Debra K. Moser, College of Nursing
Mariana Nikolova-Karakashian, Physiology
Abhijit Patwardhan,
Graduate Center Biomedical Engineering
David Randall, Physiology
Steven Post, Pharmacology
Jon Satin, Physiology
Eric Smart, Pediatrics
Susan Smyth, Internal
Medicine
Daret St. Clair, Toxicology
Sean Stocker, Physiology
Lisa Tannock, Internal
Medicine
Michael Toborek, Neurosurgery
Nancy Webb,
Internal Medicine
Deneys van der Westhuyzen,
Internal Medicine
Sidney Whiteheart, Biochemistry
Advisors
Richard Charnigo, Biostatistics, External Advisory Board
Ada Sue Selwitz, Office of Research Integrity, External Advisory Board
External Advisory Board
C. William Balke, College of Medicine,
External Advisory Board
Brian Jackson, Physiology, External Advisory Board
Nobuyo Maeda, University of North Caroline, External Advisory Board
David Polluck, Medical College of Georgia, External Advisory Board
James Tracy, Vice President of Research, External Advisory Board
Trainees
Current:
Lindsay Calderon,
Pharmacology (Steven Post)
Robert N. Correll,
Biochemistry (Douglas Andres)
William Lester, Physiology (Jonathon Satin)
Joyce Valez, Toxicology (Daret St. Clair)
Previous:
Meredith Bostrom, Nutritional
Sciences (Nancy Webb)
Emily Bradshaw-Helfrich, Physiology (Eric Smart)
Miranda Byse, Physiology (Jonathon Satin)
Randall Hulshizer, Pharmacology (Robert Hadley)
Rebecca Scotland, Pharmacology (Steven Post)
Aaron Urbas, Pharmaceutical Sciences (Robert Lodder)
Yanmei Wang, Nutritional Sciences
(Reto Asmis)
Recruitment
Graduate students working in the laboratory of a training faculty
are encouraged to apply for support. Students will be selected based on
their GPA, GRE quantitative score and research experience. All qualified
graduate student applicants will be interviewed by the members of the
recruiting committee and by selected additional individuals from the
training faculty. Preference for trainee fellowships will be given to
qualified graduate students who have passed their qualifying exam and whose
success in graduate programs has already been established. Renewals for
additional years support will be contingent on satisfactory performance in
the first year.
Qualifications
Candidates must have performed successfully
and been recommended by the academic program into which they have
matriculated (e.g., IBS). All applicants that meet minimal acceptance
standards will be reviewed by the members of
the Recruiting and Student Affairs Committee for acceptance into the program, and, upon their recommendation, by the Executive Committee. All
candidates must give evidence of firm intention to become an investigator,
whether as a basic science or, eventually, a clinical faculty member.
