Institutional Support
This program, and the faculty within it, receive very strong institutional support from the UCD, the BDC and the NJMRC. This support comes in many different areas that can be categorized in the following areas:
Laboratories
The institutes provide each faculty member listed in this program with their own assigned office (100-220 sq. ft) and laboratory (500-2,000 sq. ft) space. The institutes also provide shared equipment necessary for the various research programs. Such shared equipment includes: high speed centrifuges and ultracentrifuges, X-ray development processors, phosphoimagers, radiation (b and g) counters, autoclaves, gel documentation systems, cold rooms and freezers.
Research Grant Support: The Cancer Center of the UCD provides funds (typically $20,000 to $50,000) for pilot projects and other new grants. These grants are funded from several sources including a grant from the ACS and from monies raised directly by the Cancer Center through philanthropic support. This funding supplements the total grant support of all the faculty which is approximately $15M.
Support of the UCD Graduate Program: The predoctoral program is supported by a training grant from the NIAID. This grant is currently being reviewed for its third cycle (5 year). The graduate program also receives considerable support from the UCD Graduate School which is funded directly by the University of Colorado. The Graduate School provides the predoctoral program with significant direction through the formulation and implementation of policies and procedures. The Graduate School provides direct administrative support to the predoctoral program by maintaining the academic record of each predoctoral student. The Graduate School also provides considerable assistance (both administrative and financial) in the recruitment of predoctoral students. The UCD provides RATA (research associate/teaching associate) and tuition reimbursement funds directly to the department. These funds ($67,382 for the current year), that are provided to the Department of Immunology are used entirely for student stipends (as is mandated by the UCD graduate school). This money is used to supplement stipends of students on the training grant and to provide the stipend for one additional student.
Other sources of support for predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees: The Department of Immunology currently provides direct stipend support for 4 predoctoral students and 2-3 postdoctoral fellows. Thus, between the support of this training grant and funds from the Graduate school and the Department, we are able to provide funding for 9 of the 40-50 students currently in the program.
Other entry tracks for predoctoral students: Predoctoral students enter the program by several mechanisms. Our primary track is through direct recruitment into the Immunology Department. In addition, the UCD supports 2 predoctoral programs that provide entry tracks for predoctoral students into the Immunology predoctoral program. These include the (i) Basic Science Program (BSP) and the (ii) Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP). The institutional (UCD) support for both of these programs includes the salary of an administrator for each program and partial salary support for the program directors. In addition, the Dean of the UCD Graduate School provides for the stipends of all first year students in the BSP programs.
Summer students: As part of the recruiting and publicity process for the predoctoral program we rely upon the summer student programs available for both college and high school students. The UCD Cancer Center (under the direction of Dr. Richard Bakemeier) organizes and supports a large program approximately 65 students for summer students. This program is partially supported by an R25 grant from the NCI. The UCD graduate school administers an NIH-funded summer student program, called GEMS (Graduate Experience for Multicultural Students) program. The NJMRC also provides for the stipends of 17 summer students. These programs in the past have been a successful mechanism to attract predoctoral trainees (including minority students) and would not have been possible without institutional support.
Teaching Facilities of the UCD: All of the classroom teaching to the predoctoral students is performed in classrooms at the UCD campus. These are all modern classrooms that are equipped with slide and overhead projectors, LCD displays and Internet connections. In addition there are two fully equipped computer classrooms. A new educational complex, the Molly Blank Educational Center, finished construction on the NJCMR campus in 2003 and is a major venue for Immunology classroom teaching.
