DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Postdoctoral training is a major institutional strength at the Forsyth Institute. In this NRSA-supported renewal of our T32 postdoctoral training program, we will build on that strength by developing a diverse group of committed, highly trained and competitive investigators from a pool of (a) dentists, with or without the PhD, who seek to obtain collaborative, multidisciplinary research training (basic, translational, or clinical) applicable to oral and craniofacial diseases, conditions and disorders and (b) PhD's who desire to develop careers in oral health research that will take advantage of the most current scientific and collaborative strategies. Trainees will find principal research homes with one of 20 well-funded and published mentors in Departments of Biomineralization, Periodontology, Immunology, Molecular Genetics, Cytokine Biology and the Center of Development and Regenerative Biology, Center for Clinical and Translational Biology, and the Laboratory of Applied Molecular Photomedicine. To emphasize collaborative and multidisciplinary approaches, trainees will be more strongly associated with one (or more) of three Focus Areas (Structural Biology/Biomineralization; Host-Biofilm Interface, and Clinical and Translational Research). The program will be guided by a Steering Committee, led by Dr. Daniel Smith (Program Director) and Dr. Thomas Van Dyke (Program Co-Director). External review will be provided by an External Advisory Committee of Drs. Jeffrey Ebersole (University of Kentucky) and Robert Quivey (University of Rochester). The postdoctoral training program will provide support for seven trainees with three years each of mentored research. Although strong emphasis is placed on the research component, trainees will have a number of elective and non-elective opportunities apart from their bench/clinical research component. These opportunities will be tailored to the individual's needs and programs. Tutorials and seminars in grantsmanship, grant writing skills, successful teaching and presentation, and integrity in scientific research will be part of all trainees' programs. There will be opportunities for mentoring emerging high school and dental student scientists. A systematic program of application to the program and review of trainees' progress is planned, as is informal and formal trainee feedback (current and post-program).

The formal postdoctoral training program is intended to provide research training experiences which will position trainees as investigators who can successfully compete for research funds in areas of oral health research, who can clearly and effectively communicate their thoughts both orally and on paper, who recognize the value of collaborative and multidisciplinary research interactions, who can lead and inspire others to accomplish mutual research objectives, who know how to translate their findings to practice, who are skilled in information retrieval and data analysis, who are ethical in their decision-making processes, sensitive, harmonious in their relationships with other scientists, and who know how to acquire new skills as their careers progress.