The Department of Microbiology and Immunology is pleased to announce that Dr. Stanley Perlman has successfully renewed the National Institutes of Health T32 Predoctoral Training Program titled: Training in Molecular Virology and Viral Pathogenesis. The goal of this 5-year program will be to produce outstanding independent virologists who will pursue careers in academic or other virology- related careers. Students in the program will spend 90% of their time pursuing virology research under the supervision of a funded participating faculty member. Laboratory work will be supplemented by opportunities to hone their skills in data presentation and teaching.  Department of Microbiology and Immunology Professor, Dr. Balaji Manicassamy, will serve as Co-director of this training program.

Project Summary:

The central objective of this Molecular Virology and Viral Pathogenesis Training Grant is to train predoctoral students in virology so that they can become productive members of the research community. The importance of virology has been highlighted by reports of the morbidity and mortality caused by viruses long known to infect humans as well as the emergence of zoonotic virus infections. Thus, there is an urgent need to continue producing young scientists who are expert in virology. This training grant, which has trained students for 27 years, consists of trainers with interests in a variety of viruses and who are both junior and senior. There are 19 trainers from a number of departments and interdisciplinary programs who serve as faculty on this training grant. Our focus is on understanding fundamental aspects of human virology, with an emphasis on emerging virus infections and viral pathogenesis. The training grant program is rigorous and consists of a mixture of didactic courses, seminars, seminar courses which emphasize critical reading of the literature and data presentation, and teaching opportunities. Trainees are provided feedback in several venues to hone their presentation and laboratory skills. Its interdisciplinary nature promotes interaction among students and faculty interested in virology across the University of Iowa. By providing stipend support and travel funds for graduate students, the training grant also facilitates exposure of our students to the national and international virology community. Students selected for support by the training grant have extra opportunities to teach classes and to receive funding to attend off-campus courses in a cutting-edge technology, such as bioinformatics. Through the T32 program, our trainees participate in career symposia, seminars discussing cutting edge technology and are able to interact with visiting virologists. Issues of scientific integrity and data reproducibility are also emphasized as part of the virology training grant. Career outcomes of our T32 trainees have been impressive. To date, students appointed to the training grant have uniformly completed their PhDs and obtained post-graduate positions in the life sciences. One-third of our former trainees now hold a faculty position at a R1 institution, whereas many of our other former trainees have senior positions in biotech. In short, this training grant has had many years of success, and we will build upon this success. We continue to request funds for three predoctoral graduate students per year, with support generally provided for two years between their second and fourth years of study.