The objective of the Baylor Pediatric Diabetes Research Training Program is to provide didactic structure and mentoring for M.D. fellows who are committed to academic careers in translational research in pediatric diabetes and related areas, which includes the spectrum of basic research to evidence based medicine. The renewal of this training grant will permit us to sustain the enormous progress that we have achieved over the past four years. Our program's strength lies in the availability of the resources of one of the largest Departments of Pediatrics in the country, which include well-established, peer review funded, pediatric investigators with broad disciplinary expertise and a track record of mentoring, and excellent research resources, programs and facilities. In addition, Baylor College of Medicine provides a rich environment of basic and clinical expertise that will provide unique training opportunities for pediatric diabetologists. The training plan will: 1) facilitate the development of the trainees'individual didactic and research training programs, 2) provide stipends to protect time for the program, 3) provide education in the areas of study design, statistics, molecular biology, and other cognates, 4) ensure an appropriate and successful mentor match, and 5) make available the resources of the College to facilitate trainees'research activities in a cost effective fashion. The proposed program has 23 active and successful clinical and basic science investigators as mentors. The Division's lectures, clinical care conference, and journal club, the Clinical Scientist Training Program, and the Pediatric Fellowship Training Program will provide the framework of the didactic core of the program. Over the last 20 years we have successfully used this approach to mentored research training for the pediatric faculty in the Child Health Research Center grant, which has fostered the career development of 52 physician investigators, 80% of whom remain in academic medicine. This success reflects the departmental and institutional commitment to the training of young physician scientists. The funding of this T32 will help sustain our fledgling training program for bright and motivated academic pediatricians who will improve the health and care of the current and next generation of children with diabetes mellitus.

T32DK063873

2002-09-30

2013-06-30