Training Opportunities
Due to the transdisciplinary nature of our research program, our faculty are members of multiple graduate groups and involved in training of pre-doctoral fellows from a variety of The Biomedical Graduate Studies (BGS) Program.
The Biomedical Graduate Studies (BGS) program consists of the seven biomedical graduate groups, faculty, and students. Academic administration is provided by the Director and Office Staff of BGS, the Graduate Group Chairs and Coordinators, the program-wide biomedical graduate committees, the School of Medicine, and the university-wide academic structure.
K12 Program
The goal of this Career Development Program is to develop a new generation of pediatric endocrinologists who will be equipped to carry out innovative, scientifically rigorous patient-oriented and laboratory-based research related to diabetes mellitus in children. The need for this Program derives from the critical shortage of academic pediatric endocrinologists working in diabetes research, which has been emphasized by organizations such as the American Diabetes Association, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and Pediatric Academic Societies. In addition, this Program recognizes the important new opportunities for advancing diabetes research in children provided by such pivotal scientific advances as the Human Genome Project, and improved success in islet transplantation and the production of biomechanical and bio-engineered islets. This K12 Program supports Scholars for up to 3 years of research career development at the junior faculty level. The Program faculty includes over 30 scientific mentors from the Children's Hospital and the U Penn School of Medicine who have outstanding credentials, active research programs and training records. These mentors will supervise Scholars' career development through basic laboratory and/or patient-oriented research related to diabetes in children. Career development opportunities will include 3 major areas of basic research 1) Signal Transduction: Mechanisms of Hormone Action; 2) Regulation of Pancreatic beta-Cell Function and Development; and 3) Genetic Approaches to Diabetes and Endocrine Diseases. Patient-oriented research opportunities will include the areas of 1) Islet Immunology, Transplantation, and Regulation; 2) Therapeutic Approaches to Islet Cell Preservation 3) Obesity and Insulin Resistance, 4) Diabetes Complications; and 5) Diabetes Epidemiology and Biostatistics. The Program includes a curriculum of formal training in all aspects of research; (including biostatistics, bioethics, molecular biology, etc.) and is strongly supported by access to a superb range of institutional resources, including the CHOP CTRC and the UPenn DERC. .
Biomedical Graduate Groups
The graduate groups work closely with the office of BGS to administer all aspects of biomedical graduate education. (The exception is Epidemiology and Biostatistics, which is funded separately from BGS but coordinates many aspects of its administration within BGS.) They are:
Two additional graduate groups, Bioengineering (BE) and Biology (BIOL), are affiliated with the BGS program but are administered through the schools of Engineering and Arts and Sciences. The BGS program also includes students in the Combined Degree program, who are pursuing dual MD-PhD or VMD-PhD degrees.
Biomedical Graduate Faculty
The BGS program faculty consists of approximately 550 standing and research faculty members from the schools of Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Dental Medicine, Arts and Sciences, and Engineering and Applied Sciences. Approximately 75 percent of the BGS program faculty have primary appointments in the School of Medicine. Adjunct faculty with primary appointments at affiliated institutions, particularly the Wistar Institute and the Fox Chase Cancer Center, are represented as well. Membership in the BGS program faculty is achieved through recommendation by members of the graduate group (or groups), and faculty are expected to perform service as a condition of membership.
Biomedical Graduate Students
Within the BGS graduate groups, approximately 670 graduate students pursue the PhD degree, including more than 150 students pursuing a combined degree.
Additional Information is available: http://www.med.upenn.edu/bgs/faculty.shtml
