# Chemical Biology Training Program

> **NIH NIH T32** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY · 2024 · $439,487

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The Chemical Biology Training Program (CBTP) is a new interdisciplinary predoctoral training program at the
University of California at Berkeley. The CBTP will be the only training program at UC Berkeley focusing on
chemistry-driven approaches to biomedical research. The CBTP will recruit and appoint 12 trainees per year to
train in the field of chemical biology, drawn from a pool of 1378 applicants and 117 matriculants per year in the
Chemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology PhD programs. Trainees will be appointed for one-year terms and
will continue to engage with the CBTP training activities and community-building events through to graduation.
We aim to have at least 20% of our trainees coming from historically excluded groups (HEGs), including racial
and ethnic minorities and students who self-identify as having a disability. We expect that 100% of our students
will graduate with a PhD within 6 years, with a target mean time to degree of 5.5 years for all students, and
with no differential between students from HEG and non-HEG backgrounds. Our goal is that every student will
publish a first or co-first author paper in a peer-reviewed journal recognized as excellent in the field of chemical
biology, and will subsequently pursue a research-related career in academia, industry, or government.
Professional development will be centered on the acquisition of six core competences designed to enable
leadership in any of these workforce sectors. Training procedures will be informed by the latest scientific
literature in the field of research mentorship and training, and will emphasize the acquisition of self-efficacy and
sense of belonging. Research training will be enhanced in response to the latest advances in chemical biology,
including the rapidly growing importance of translational chemical biology to drug development. A series of
training innovations have been incorporated into the CBTP, including establishing academic-industrial
partnerships and the creation of a new academic unit focused on Molecular Therapeutics, and structured
mentoring environment with student peer mentoring groups and secondary faculty advocates. The
effectiveness of the training program will be rigorously evaluated on an annual basis and advice sought from
newly-constituted student and external advisory groups. Our 45 CBTP training faculty are drawn from 9
different departments at UC Berkeley, and our trainees will be drawn from the Departments of Chemistry and
Molecular and Cell Biology PhD programs. Our faculty are world leaders in their fields and include 10 members
of the National Academy of Sciences and recipients of the Nobel and Wolf Prizes in Chemistry. All CBTP
faculty undergo formal mentorship training and evaluation of mentoring quality.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10810585
- **Project number:** 1T32GM152983-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY
- **Principal Investigator:** MATTHEW B FRANCIS
- **Activity code:** T32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $439,487
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-07-01 → 2029-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10810585

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10810585, Chemical Biology Training Program (1T32GM152983-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10810585. Licensed CC0.

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