Comparative Biomedical Scientist Training Program

The project serves to coordinate the training and the university-NIH interface. The project provides trainees with molecular and comparative pathology educational curricular content suitable for graduate credit at partnership universities. Staff within the Molecular Pathology Unit have a significant responsibility in training and mentoring trainees. Trainees undertake pre-dissertation research within the molecular pathology unit for which they receive university graduate course credit. Veterinary pathologists undertaking research training integrate pathology into the range of intramural research. Integration of the veterinary pathologist into the laboratory results in fulfillment of the training programs vision of vertically integrated pathologist-investigator, working in partnership as research team member from discovery to research translation. The educational infrastructure within the training consortium includes university collaboration and builds upon an interdisciplinary orientation to team science. Program and trainee accomplishments for fiscal year 2008 include: Accomplishments 1. Addition of 5th US college of veterinary medicine to the training partnership Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. 2. Recruited 2 veterinarians to initiate Graduate Partnership Program training - one at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC and one at Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. 3. Graduated 2 D.V.M. / Ph.D. Comparative Biomedical Scientists from the program one at University of Maryland, College Park, MD and one at Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. Student Ph.D. dissertations entitled: Development of a mouse model for the t(10;11) (p13; q14) chromosomal translocation associated with acute leukemia in humans University of Maryland. BMI1 collaborates with HRAS to promote mammary tumorigenesis and metastasis Michigan State University. 4. Program trainees authored or co-authored 5 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles 2 research, 1 review and 2 clinical articles published in journals including: Cancer Cell, Cancer Research, Leukemia, and Veterinary Pathology. Young Investigator Award Finalist National Veterinary Scholars Symposium, Natcher Center, NIH, 2007. 5. Proposal accepted to include veterinary medical student applicants into the NIH-Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scholars Program. 6. Two trainees successfully completed national specialty board certification examination by The American College of Veterinary Pathologists. 7. Seven veterinary students trained for summer internships or clerkships within National Institute of Health collaborative intramural laboratories.