Overview of the Program Faculty of the STTP

The combined continuing and newly recruited group of 34 faculty involved in the training program consists of 25 full professors and 9 associate professors (all tenured). Twenty-seven (27) of these faculty trainers are continuing participants (of the originally funded program since 1997 and/or the renewed program since 2002), plus 7 members who have since been recruited to join the STTP between 2002-2006. The STTP faculty includes participants from the ranks of both the basic science departments (30 faculty) and sections within the Department of Medicine (4 faculty), including Chiefs of two clinical divisions - Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine and the Section of Infectious Diseases. Faculty trainers from the Departments of Medicine or Urology all have joint and/or affiliate appointments in one or more of the basic science Departments, and are therefore eligible to serve as mentors for predoctoral students recruited into the STTP from the various basic science, GEMS and M.D./Ph.D. predoctoral programs. Our recently recruited faculty members bring new strength and breadth to the STTP in terms of strong, NIH funded programs, some of which revolve directly around research problems in signal transduction as relates to their respective fields of expertise and ongoing research programs. Our participating faculty members' strengths in the areas of molecular and cellular approaches to understanding receptor biology and signal transduction pathways, and their interface between research on basic mechanisms, normal physiology, and disease pathogenesis, make the program a truly modern and interdisciplinary one. Many of our faculty trainers have collaborative research efforts and/or joint funding with other participating faculty members in the STTP. They are encouraged to participate actively in the workings of the STTP, and all are involved in communal training activities including research seminars by invited speakers, faculty and their trainees, signal transduction and related research colloquia and journal clubs at UIC, and the annual city wide “Chicago Signal Transduction Symposium.” Co-authored publications, jointly obtained research and program project grants, and jointly sponsored predoctoral students emphasize the collaborations and training interactions among the STTP participating staff. All of the 34 faculty members are highly active in research and have more than ample research support from the NIH and other competitive peer-reviewed sources, e.g. NSF, to support their training efforts in the STTP. The STTP faculty mentored or are currently mentoring numerous pre- and post-doctoral trainees. The Program Director and the STTP Advisory Committee follow and evaluate the training activities for all predoctoral trainees that are supported by this program on a yearly or more frequent basis, and all trainees must be re-nominated by their mentors and be competitive for a second year of support relative to new trainee applicants based on acceptable training and research progress that is consistent with the educational, training and research tenets of the STTP.