Project Summary The overall purpose of this program is the training of new scientists capable of performing high quality biomedical research in the areas of diabetes, obesity and metabolism. The program is centered within the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism of the Department of Medicine and includes 13 faculty participants from several departments at the University of California, San Diego, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology and the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Research Institute. The faculty represent a range of interests and skills, with a decided focus on basic and translational approaches, including stem cell biology, beta cell biology, genetics, signal transduction, metabolism, nuclear receptors, and transcriptional mechanisms, among others. The program will include: (1) intensive laboratory and clinical research training, (2) seminars and other conferences, and (3) formal course instruction. The primary focus of the training program is the research undertaken by each trainee in association with a member of the training grant faculty. Under close supervision by the faculty member, the trainee will be encouraged and expected to assume an increasingly independent scientific role in all aspects of the research. In addition, the training program will foster and encourage a scholarly exchange of ideas and intellectual cross fertilization. Weekly seminars are held in which ongoing research is presented for discussion by the group as a whole. Another weekly meeting is devoted to discussions by training grant faculty and trainees of recent scientific advances. In part, this conference functions as a Journal Club. Finally, all trainees are required to take 4 quarters of formal course work, including a required course entitled “Biomedical Research Ethics” offered through the UCSD School of Medicine. Thus, this training program expands and brings together various activities encompassing the training and education of postdoctoral fellows in the fields of diabetes, obesity and metabolism in the La Jolla biosciences community.