Summary: This proposal is a competitive renewal of an NHLBI-sponsored training grant that has been funded continuously for almost four decades and has trained most of the trainees in cardiovascular biology at our university, since its inception. We request support for eight Postdoctoral trainees. Given our UCSD environment and faculty with common interests as well as a breadth of expertises, the major objective of our program is to train individuals so that they have a broad-based background in cardiovascular biology, but a focused research direction in the study of cardiovascular development, physiology and disease. The specific scientific disciplines that are included in the training plan are 1) cardiac signaling, 2) cardiac development, cardiac regeneration and stem cell biology, 3) cardiac genetics and epigenetics and 4) cardiac bioengineering. This program provides extensive mentoring of trainees, to equip them to become independent investigators and remain in academic positions, or have success with careers in industry, government or non-profit sector biomedical positions. The Postdoctoral positions are drawn from a large pool of fellows that apply directly to our faculty, or from applicants to our Cardiovascular Medicine fellowship or Physician-Scientist Training Program (a “short-track” pathway program for M.D./Ph.D. trained medical students to enter internal medicine residency and be assured acceptance to the Cardiovascular Medicine fellowship,) who show a strong interest in pursuing a career in cardiovascular science. Since its beginning in 1978, 130 trainees have received support from this program and a large majority of them hold independent positions in biomedicine as either academic faculty, or positions in research oriented fields, with most remaining active in research and publishing regularly. At least two years of training will be required of all trainees. Our 23 excellent faculty are from: The Departments of Anesthesiology, Bioengineering, Medicine, and Pharmacology, as well as the School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences. The program is composed of both didactic and laboratory experiences and emphasizes bench and career oriented training. At all stages of the program career planning will be stressed and the training program tailored to meet an individual trainee's long-term goals in academic medicine, biomedical fields and research.

Narrative: This proposal is a competitive renewal of a training grant that requests support for eight post- doctoral trainees at UCSD. The major objective of our program is to train individuals so that they have a broad-based background in cardiovascular biology, but a focused research direction in one of the areas of cardiac signaling, cardiac development, cardiac regeneration and stem cell biology, cardiac genetics and epigenetics or cardiac bioengineering. The program provides extensive lab and career mentoring of trainees, to equip them to become independent investigators.