Principal Investigator/Training Grant Director: Edith Lord
The aim of our NIAID-funded Pre- and Postdoctoral Immunology Training Program is to provide academia, industry, and governmental research laboratories with highly creative and productive research immunologists who are broadly trained in immunology, well trained in their research specialty, and schooled in interrelated fields (e.g., pathogenesis of disease, cell biology, molecular biology, tumor biology). This goal is mandated by the intellectual desires and career aspirations of the program's participants and by the health needs of the nation. This goal will be achieved by having the predoctoral students follow a highly visible and defined Immunology Track set in the interdepartmental graduate training milieu of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. The essential environment is fostered by: faculty immunologists dedicated to excellence in teaching and research and committed to immunology training; active immunological research programs of trainees and their mentors; a structured lecture course in immunology and with an adjunct seminar; a series of advanced level seminars on specialty topics in immunology; a research-in-progress seminar series and a journal club; a seminar series with visiting faculty and staff from industry, private research foundations, and governmental research laboratories as well as from academia; and by a catalytic number of trainees (supported either by this training grant or by other funding sources). Breadth in training in fields related to immunology will be accomplished by students in the Immunology Track taking courses and/or seminars in pertinent areas of scientific inquiry that interface with immunology.
Research training opportunities in a wide variety of immunological problems within the purview of B-cell biology (Bottaro, Insel, Phipps, Sanz, Young), T-cell biology (Barth, Robert, Crispe, Fowell, Frelinger, Mosmann, Moynihan, Zheng), inflammation (Barth, Phipps), tumor immunity (Lord, Frelinger, Robert); autoimmunity (Fowell), evolution of immunity (Robert), and neural-immune system interactions (Moynihanl) will be offered to pre- and postdoctoral fellows by an experienced, talented, and highly interactive primary training faculty.
Note that selection of a research mentor in immunology is not restricted to faculty listed as primary trainers on this Immunology Training Grant. Furthermore, all trainees in the Immunology Track have equal access to the same academic program regardless of the source of their support. Research programs of all IMV faculty in the immunology program are described below.