Training grant in hemostasis and thrombosis

The University of Pennsylvania (UPENN) and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have directed an NHLBI-sponsored T32 training grant supporting pre- and postdoctoral trainees in the interrelated areas of hemostasis and thrombosis for the past 20 years. The goal of the program is to prepare these trainees for careers in the blood sciences as successful investigators working in the areas related to hemostasis and thrombosis that include academia, research institutes, and industry (pharma/biotech). UPENN and CHOP have one of the largest concentration of investigators in the country interested in basic, translational, and clinical research focused on uncovering new mechanistic insights and therapeutic interventions related to hemostasis and thrombosis. We draw upon 31 of these talented faculty members, eight of which are young trainers and 10 of which are female, to mentor and train our students/fellows and provide them with an integrated, collaborative experience to ensure a rich pipeline of scientists interested in hemostasis and thrombosis.

In addition to rigorous scientific training (specific aim 1), our program has an intensive hemostasis and thrombosis didactic curriculum (seven unique components; specific aim 2) and fosters development of key core competencies such as responsible conduct of research, communication/writing skills, professionalism, management skills, and career development tools all supported by the rich infrastructure at UPENN and CHOP (specific aim 3). Dr. Rodney Camire is the Program Director and Dr. Douglas Cines is the Co-Director and they oversee all aspects of the training program.

Further, the program receives critical feedback from five Internal and three External Advisory Committee members, along with successful former T32 alumni, who assist the Program Director to monitor the progress of the trainees (specific aim 4). Since the last funding cycle, we modified the total number of trainees to 2 predocs and 4 postdocs to better capture the best and brightest available students/fellows working with our trainers who are drawn from six Departments/Division at UPENN and CHOP and five different graduate groups at UPENN. Since its inception in 2000, the program trained 32 predoctoral (40% female) and 36 postdoctoral scientists (48% female). Over 75% of our trainees remain in careers which are primarily research, with ~51% of our pre- and postdoctoral trainees in academia-primarily research, ~27% in the pharmaceutical/biotech sector-primarily research, with the remaining (21%) in research-related careers as scientific writers/consultants.

We believe this program, with an extraordinarily rich and interactive group of faculty members, provides exciting research opportunities combined with strong didactic and mentoring programs focused on todays and emerging new challenges in hemostasis and thrombosis. We hope to have the opportunity to train individuals who will make important contributions to these areas of research and will become leaders in the field of hemostasis and thrombosis.

Grant Number: 5T32HL007971-24
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: Rodney Camire