7. CMTRTP ABSTRACT The National Research Council has documented a dire national need for veterinary specialists trained in biomedical research. Furthermore, veterinary researchers play a key role in comparative and translational research activities since they naturally bridge basic and clinical research. To address this training need, we request continued NIH funding for 7 fellows per year for 3 years. NC State University will provide funding for up to 2 fellows per year and 2 pre-T32 positions. Trainees will be degree-seeking fellows in the Comparative Medicine and Translational Research training program established by the faculty in the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) and the Comparative Medicine Institute (CMI) at North Carolina State University. This training program specifically targets individuals with the DVM degree who have completed specialty training and is designed to prepare trainees to compete for an early career development award and a rapid transition to independence as a principal investigator or in another research-intensive career. Trainees complete requirements leading to the PhD degree in Comparative Biomedical Sciences (CBS) in one of 7 areas of concentration: 1) Immunology 2) Cell Biology, 3) Pharmacology, 4) Neurosciences, 5) Infectious Diseases, 6) Population Medicine and Global Health, and 7) Pathology. Training faculty are well-funded productive scientists that have a strong training track-record and diverse research expertise. Training faculty are all members of the CBS graduate program and the CMI and represent 5 departments from 3 Colleges. Research projects emphasize comparative and translational themes fostered by the CVM and CMI in functional tissue engineering, translational pharmacology and physiology, and emerging and infectious diseases. Program requirements include: (1) a capstone comparative animal models course; (2) professional development courses and workshops; (3) courses in research ethics and research rigor and reproducibility; (4) a grant writing course and (5) annual research symposia. These requirements are in addition to those associated with the graduate program. Twenty four fellows have completed training. Twenty hold faculty positions in academia, one is a research pathologist, one is a clinical pathologist in industry, and one is a postdoctoral fellow. Fellows were awarded 18 NIH or other federal grants as PI and more than 50 extramural research grants and published 125 papers (84 first author) arising from their research while in training.