Happy New Year to everyone.
Although most of the attention regarding our educational mission has related to our important role of training the next generation of physicians, there is another educational mission, also critical, which we do not talk about as much. That educational mission overlaps with our research mission, and it is to train the next generation of researchers for our institution and the nation. Such training includes undergraduates (leading to PhD and MD/PhD degrees), post-doctoral fellows (both PhD and MD) and faculty.
We have made much progress over the last decade in this work through the creation and funding of the Great Plains IDeA-CTR, development and funding of several T32s from the National Institutes of Health and successful competition for several Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grants. Last month, we received good news that will further enhance the college’s ability to support training of our students and faculty for successful research careers.
As noted within this issue of InterCOM, Dr. Rebekah Gundry, chair of the department of cellular and integrative physiology, received word that her application to NIH to establish a new COBRE, which provides a detailed infrastructure to support and train junior faculty for careers in cardiovascular research, will be funded. This will greatly accelerate the success of the UNMC Center for Heart and Vascular Research, for which Dr. Gundry serves as director. The college offers its congratulations to Dr. Gundry and the large team that worked on putting this extensive application together. I look forward to the success of the individuals who will be emerging from it as established investigators in this important research area.
In addition to this award, we also have received notice from NIH of their intent to fund two new T32 undergraduate training grants for which COM faculty serve as PIs. Since formal award notices have not been received, a formal announcement of their success is slightly premature given the uncertainties of the federal budget in the months ahead. Nevertheless, this is also excellent news and promises to help us continue to provide outstanding training opportunities for our PhD and MD/PhD students for many years, as well as provide the college and UNMC with a growing pipeline of exceptional investigators for our faculty.
Speaking of T32s, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Howard Gendelman, chair of the department of pharmacology and experimental neuroscience, the national meeting of T32 program directors is scheduled to take place in Omaha this summer. This is a wonderful opportunity for UNMC and Omaha to showcase the exceptional resources and commitment we have toward research training. You will be hearing more about this as the summer approaches. Although it may be hard to tell from the recent snowfall, that time is not too far away.
I will close as I started by wishing each of you a Happy New Year and great success in your endeavors in the coming year.