University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center
The CIDI has ongoing funding from the National Institutes of Health for a prestigious T32 training grant for the training of young investigators in infectious diseases, allergy, and immunology. Three pre-doctoral students and two postdoctoral fellows are enrolled at any given time. This training program provides an especially rigorous and rewarding graduate or postgraduate training experience, which affect not only the named grant trainees but all graduate and undergraduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the CIDI laboratories. The presence of the training grant has spurred the development of several new courses and journal clubs and fostered numerous new avenues of scientific collaboration among CIDI investigators and their counterparts in other programs.
Ambitious, intensive training. The pre-doctoral student trainee receives stipend coverage for up to a maximum of three years, beginning as early as the second or third year of training. Postdoctoral fellows may be supported for up to two years. This funding stream offers the advantage of making his/her laboratory stipend more stable than if the student is funded directly from of an investigator's grant. The student also receives book and training supply allowance, as travel funds. In addition to the requirements of the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, the student is required to participate in a number of core and/or elective courses that will give him or her a broad, in depth understanding of infectious diseases and immunology. The courses available to the trainee include Biostatistics, Problem-based Research Bioethics (BioMed 555) and Immunopathogenesis of Infectious Diseases (BioMed 652). The trainee is expected to attend and present at relevant joint laboratory meetings as well as meetings of their PI's own laboratory. The IDIP trainee also receives many opportunities to speak at seminars, which develops presentation skills. At least one such public seminar is required of the trainee each year. The student's enrollment in the program adds prestige to his or her curriculum vitae.
Laboratory Investigation. The mentors in the IDIP believe that mentorship of the student in laboratory investigations is a critical responsibility, and that mentorship includes training the student to independently design and plan hypothesis-driven experiments. The IDIP faculty has a strong track record of training students. IDIP trainees have gone on to prestigious fellowships at institutions such as the Scripps Research Institute, Colorado State University and the Wadsworth Laboratory, among others. Postdoctoral trainees have gone on to assume tenure-track faculty employment at institutions such as the University of Kentucky. The collegiality of the CIDI faculty, as well as several formal joint laboratory meetings, helps assure that the trainee hears multiple perspectives on their research rather than solely the perspective of their immediate mentor or thesis advisor.
Admission to the Training Program. Pre-doctoral students who have already been admitted to the BSGP become eligible to apply for funding from the IDIP training grant after their first year in the BSGP. Since enrollment is limited to three years for each of the three graduate students or two years for each of the two postdoctoral fellows, an average of at least one slot becomes available each year for each program. Admission to these programs is on a competitive basis. Factors considered in the application include the student's promise for academic and laboratory success during and after their enrollment in the training grant, their commitment to the discipline, and their previous academic and research record. Members of underrepresented minority groups and women are strongly encouraged to apply. The program has enjoyed strong success at achieving its goals vis-a-vis diversity.