Why have there not been more successes in translating exciting scientific discoveries into improved patient care and community health? Possible explanations include: - A shortage and high turnover rate of clinician-investigators due to insufficient institutional and environmental support; reluctance to let go of the traditional department-centric research and training models;
- A lack of effectiveness in educating PhD scientists about the physiology and pathophysiology of human health and disease; and
- A gap in providing clinical and bench scientists with the tools needed to be successful in the current research environment, including working in interdisciplinary teams.
The Center for Education and Career Development (CECD) is designed to break down these potential barriers. The CECD aims to create the next generation of clinical researchers representing multiple disciplines who will be boundary spanners, able to pollinate new ideas and link laboratories and investigators in different disciplines.
The CECD will build on an already successful program of interdisciplinary research education, training and career development. Northwestern University has fostered interdisciplinary research for several decades. It has provided incentives including faculty positions and research funding to break the lines and barriers separating disciplines, and merged discipline-based graduate training programs in the life sciences and engineering into 4 integrated programs that span campus locations.
Specific goals of the CECD include: Create new courses, seminars and programs and integrate them with existing activities; Enhance the current Master of Science in Clinical Investigation (MSCI) and other degree and certificate programs; Develop a new Multidisciplinary Clinical and Translational Science Scholars (K12) Program focusing on the needs of postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty members; Develop a new predoctoral (T32) training program leading to a PhD in Clinical and Translational Science or MD/PhD with the PhD in Clinical and Translational Science; Expand the candidate pool for our programs by including pre-doctoral trainees and basic scientists Educate/train the candidates differently than in the past using an expanded set of course offerings and seminars and established interdisciplinary teams; Create new clinical and translational research education and training programs for community-based clinical investigators, nurses, research staff and medical residents; Nurture trainees using carefully chosen mentors and new oversight procedures, including standardized tracking tools; and Expand and enhance opportunities for the development of mentors; Create the Translational Research Incubator Program (TRIP) to provide a new incubation function, and to provide faculty access to expertise in research designs, analytic techniques and research ethics.
The Center for Education and Career Development is led by co-directors H. William Schnaper, MD and Lewis J. Smith, MD., and by the directors of the institutional K12 program, Richard Pope, MD, the T32 program, David Engman, MD, PhD, and the MSCI and Certificate programs, Lewis J. Smith, MD. Other key personnel for the K12 program are H. William Schnaper, MD, and Jean Egmon, EdD, and for the Certificate programs Paula Carney, PhD, RD and Marcia Phillips, DNSc, RN.
Lewis J. Smith, MD, is professor of Medicine and associate vice president for Research. He has been on the faculty at NU since 1979, serving as division chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and associate director for Education and Training in the Office of Clinical Research and Training. He established and continues to direct the MSCI degree program. His current research interest is airway diseases and the role of nutrition in asthma. He is principal investigator of the American Lung Association’s Asthma Clinical Research Center (ACRC) in Illinois, now in its eighth year, and he is co-investigator on several NIH-supported multi-center studies including Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) and Multiethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). He chairs the Pulmonary Committee of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)-funded CARDIA study. He also chairs the Research Grant Review committee (study section) of the American Lung Association and their Scientific Advisory Committee. He has mentored several students in the MSCI program and teaches one MSCI course, Drug Development, and co-teaches another, Ethical Issues in Clinical Research. H. William Schnaper, MD is vice chair and professor of Pediatrics, deputy director for Academic Development at Children’s Memorial Research Center, program director for a pediatric K12 program funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and program director of the combined Physician-Scientist Training Program (PSTP) at the Feinberg School of Medicine. His research focuses on signal transduction mechanisms activated by TGF-b in the kidney. He has been a leader in developing the Medical School’s faculty mentoring program, served as a mentor to multiple faculty members within and outside of the Department of Pediatrics, and is class advisor for the present second-year class of MD-PhD students. He has served on and chaired multiple study sections for both the Center for Scientific Review and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). In 2005, he completed terms as a charter member of the Pathobiology of Kidney Disease Study Section, NIH and chair of the American Board of Pediatrics Sub-board in Nephrology. He will co-direct the institutional K12 program and direct the PSTP. |
