California's Stem Cell Agency

The Stem Cell Training Program includes: experienced, well-funded mentors; essential techniques, methodologies, and facilities relevant to basic, translational, and clinical training in stem cell research; established graduate and training programs that provide the spectrum of training experiences; a clinical enterprise that includes a medical school, teaching hospital, and exceptional infrastructure including a CIRM Shared Research Facility and CIRM Stem Cell Institute; core facilities that provide essential equipment and expertise in stem cell biology and related areas such as animal models, bioengineering, genomics, and imaging; and a clinical program to ensure the translation of bench research to new therapies for human diseases. The program also includes a strong, collaborative framework in which to mentor and cultivate students and young investigators using a team approach. The overarching objective is to provide chosen scholars an integrated experience with state-of-the-art multidisciplinary team training to ensure they become productive, critical thinking, highly trained, and well-rounded collaborative scientists with research careers in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. This will be accomplished through integration of established campus opportunities and partnering with other related programs and institutions. Faculty from many schools and colleges provide a collaborative structure that has been successful in the current and other funded training programs. Success with the current stem cell training program justifies support for 16 trainees (6 predoctoral, 6 postdoctoral, 4 clinical fellows). Formal training will be provided through mentored research, a didactic curriculum, existing courses in graduate education, established courses that focus on the ethical, legal, and social implications of stem cell research, stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, and a weekly journal club, monthly seminar series with speakers from around the nation, an annual symposium, and an annual training program retreat. The curriculum is designed to bring all scholars and their mentoring teams together throughout the course of the training. The mentors are responsible for selecting and mentoring candidates, evaluating trainee progress, and assisting trainees with career development. The quality of the mentor is a major focus when the selection committee chooses trainees. The leadership of the program spans basic, translational, and clinical research. An Internal Advisory Committee includes the leadership team and representatives from various schools and colleges to oversee the formal process for scholar selection, and expectations for trainees and mentors. Program effectiveness is evaluated through an established educational evaluation program.