DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is the first competitive renewal application for continued T32 award funding to support a Multidisciplinary Training Program in Pulmonary and Critical Care Research at the University of Utah School of Medicine. The overall goal of this Training Program is to help develop the next generation of M.D. and Ph.D. scientists to advance our knowledge of disease processes in the broad arena of pulmonary and critical care medicine, and to translate this knowledge to care of our patients. This young Training Program has been very successful to date; our initial trainees have outstanding publication records, have advanced into research-focused careers in academic medicine, and are pursuing or have procured extramural funding. These trainees include both M.D. and Ph.D. investigators, addressing questions in basic and clinical research. The Program faculty for this training program consists of 18 senior scientists drawn from a range of disciplines, including cell and molecular biology, quantitative research and modeling, outcomes research and human genetics; all have a strong history of training young investigators and are involved in collaborative translational and cross-disciplinary research projects. In this renewal application we propose to continue to support for 4 trainee positions (M.D. or Ph.D.) for post-doctoral training with a minimum of 2 years in the training program. Trainees will be recruited from the fellowship program in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine or from the research programs of individual mentors. Trainees elect either a basic research pathway or clinical research pathway. Key components of the Training Program include a mentored individual research project, didactic courses relevant to the trainee's chosen field and additional courses intended to broaden the trainee's research perspective. Trainees on the clinical research pathway are enrolled in a Master of Science in Clinical Investigation degree program. All trainees will take courses to enhance opportunities for long term success in a research career (Scientific Writing, Grant Writing) and in the Responsible Conduct of Research. Each trainee has an individual mentorship committee composed of the mentor, and both a basic investigator and a clinical researcher. An important priority for this program is to prepare trainees to function within multidisciplinary teams. These committees will help further that goal by constantly exposing the trainee to multidisciplinary approaches to key problems. Based on the special institutional strengths at the University of Utah trainees will have extensive opportunities to develop useful competencies in genetics, systems biology and biomedical informatics, geriatrics and environmental contributions to lung disease. This ongoing program will equip young scientists to pursue the biology of pulmonary and critical care medicine in the future, with emphasis on translational science flowing from new disco...