The Signal Transduction Training Program (STTP) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) provides unique interdisciplinary training opportunities for predoctoral students at the cutting edge interfaces between signal transduction, cell and molecular biology, organismal biology, and structural biology and molecular biophysics. To prepare trainees for future success in academic careers, it is essential that the connections between the molecular, cellular and integrative levels of organization of biological systems be appreciated. The revolution in structural insights into bio-molecules involved in signal transduction, advances in transgenic and gene disruption technologies, and genomic and post genomic sciences including systems biology, illustrates the importance and need for a training program transcending traditional departmental and disciplinary boundaries.

The STTP aspires to train future scientists in an academic and research environment where they are exposed to the strongest possible training opportunities that will prepare them to stay on the cutting edge of scientific discovery in signal transduction and cellular endocrinology fueled by advances in scientific technology and approaches to understanding and manipulating complex organismal systems.The development of a critical mass of outstanding researchers in the area of signal transduction and its allied fields culminated nearly 10 years ago in the development, application and funding of our current training program. Recruitment in this area at UIC has continued, fueled in part by the existence of this and other related training programs (e.g. “Cellular Signaling in the Cardiovascular System,” ”Lung Biology and Pathobiology,” and “Molecular Training in Gastroenterology and Hepatology,” and new recently funded programs such as “Training in the Neuroscience of Mental Health” and the inter-college “Pharmacological Sciences Training Program.” In addition, a number of investigators have expanded their research into the signaling arena, enabling us to recruit a number of outstanding new faculty trainers into the program, and significantly increase the number of pre-doctoral training opportunities in signal transduction, cellular endocrinology and allied fields.

The development of a critical mass of outstanding researchers in the area of signal transduction and its allied fields culminated nearly 10 years ago in the development, application and funding of our current training program. Recruitment in this area at UIC has continued, fueled in part by the existence of this and other related training programs (e.g. “Cellular Signaling in the Cardiovascular System,” ”Lung Biology and Pathobiology,” and “Molecular Training in Gastroenterology and Hepatology,” and new recently funded programs such as “Training in the Neuroscience of Mental Health” and the inter-college “Pharmacological Sciences Training Program.” In addition, a number of investigators have expanded their research into the signaling arena, enabling us to recruit a number of outstanding new faculty trainers into the program, and significantly increase the number of pre-doctoral training opportunities in signal transduction, cellular endocrinology and allied fields.

The STTP provides a successful mechanism for students to be supported and trained in an inter-departmental program that transcends traditional departmental and disciplinary boundaries. Importantly, the establishment of the new College of Medicine wide interdisciplinary “Graduate Education in the Medical Sciences” (GEMS) pre-doctoral program now enables and encourages students to go beyond traditional departmental boundaries as free agents in terms of choosing research rotations, Ph.D. research mentors, and interdisciplinary projects in signal transduction and cellular endocrinology. Our training program takes unique advantage of this opportunity for the recruitment of highly qualified trainees, their interdisciplinary training and collaborative research as part of the GEMS program, which serves to enrich and broaden the academic and scientific interactions that have developed between our training faculty and predoctoral trainees.

The research perspectives in the STTP participating departments and laboratories are clearly diverse, but there are strong interdisciplinary themes of investigation, particularly in signal transduction, gene transcription, and cellular endocrinology, with emphasis on both cellular and molecular mechanisms that transduce signals and regulate cell, tissue, organ and organismal processes and responses at an integrative level. The goal of the training program is to develop independent basic science and clinician-investigators, and to train doctoral candidates in broad aspects of signal transduction, cellular endocrinology, and gene transcription/translation. An underlying theme in this training program has been the coordination and promotion of interactions between pre-and post-doctoral researchers in faculty laboratories who are using different experimental systems and approaches toward understanding signal transduction mechanisms at various levels of organization including molecular, cellular and integrative biology. The training program purposefully crosses both disciplinary and departmental lines, drawing upon the expertise of 34 faculty members from our five basic science departments (Anatomy and Cell Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Microbiology and Immunology, Pharmacology, Physiology and Biophysics) and four clinical sections (Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Hematology-Oncology, Infectious Diseases, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine), and offering opportunities for training in a wide range of problems in signal transduction and allied areas using a broad spectrum of molecular, biochemical, physiologic, genetic, and structural biology approaches. The areas of signaling, cell cycle regulation, gene transcription, cancer biology, developmental biology, and endocrine and neurohumoral signaling represent major strengths of researchers at UIC and our 34 faculty trainers have been drawn from all these groups. Our faculty trainers all have programs that stress the importance of an integration of knowledge in molecular and cellular biology with understanding of the functions and dynamics of tissues, organs and animals in terms of normal development, biochemistry, metabolism, physiology, and immunology, but also animal models of disease pathogenesis. Our trainers recognize that the directions of their research and laboratory training environments may in fact be driven in part by the rapidly occurring advances in genomics, structural biology, structural genomics, bioinformatics, and other post-genomic sciences such as proteomics, such that a modern and successful training program in signal transduction must incorporate these new approaches and techniques to enable our trainees to carry this information into the realm of application and mechanism in their developing careers. Both our participating and newly involved faculty are clearly taking advantage of these new research opportunities and advances, including collaborative research projects developed as a result of the STTP, as evidenced by the significant increases in both the numbers and funding levels of NIH grant support for individual faculty research projects, and our faculty’s participation in the expanding number of other interdisciplinary training programs at UIC.