Unliquidated Obligations for NRSA T32: Training Program in Oxidative Stress and Nutrition

This is a competing renewal of a training program in Nutrition and Oxidative Stress. The primary goal of the training program is to prepare PhD students for successful careers in nutritional sciences. The focus is on nutrition as a modulator of oxidative stress in metabolic diseases, cancer and neuroscience/aging. The training program is located in the Graduate Center for Nutritional Sciences (GCNS), a multi-disciplinary center crossing departmental and college boundaries. The goals of the training program are to provide state-of-the-art education in nutritional sciences with an emphasis on oxidative stress, and to provide training in ethical conduct of high quality laboratory research focused on nutritional modulation of oxidative stress. Twenty seven training faculty, all members of the GCNS, will provide training around 3 theme areas (metabolic disease, cancer, neuroscience/aging) representing strength of current research, and research areas significant to the fields of nutrition and chronic disease. Support for 4 trainees is requested based on growth of the programs and training expertise. Students wil be recruited from an integrated biomedical sciences program or directly into the GCNS, increasing the number and quality of the applicant pool of students. Strengths of the training program include a newly revised curriculum integrating basic and clinical aspects of nutritional sciences, training faculty with extensive training experience and productive and funded research programs of direct relevance to the training program, research cores for training and facilitation of research within the theme areas, the use of a multidisciplinary center to increase and diversify opportunities for training. A unique aspect of the training program is an annual symposia on nutrition and oxidative stress, organized by the trainees with excellent opportunites for trainees to interact with nationally prominent researchers in the fields of nutritional sciences and oxidative stress. A multiple-PI model has been incorporated into the renewal to assure rigorous attention to the major focus areas of nutritional sciences and oxidative stress.