ON THE SCENE WITH THE ASSOCIATE DEAN: BIOTRAIN 720, Fall 2023

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As 2023 ends, I want to acknowledge all those involved in Fall’s BIOTRAIN 720 (Scientific Grant Writing) for which I am a co-course director. This was the 13th year for the course that was started by Doug Marchuk many years ago now as a small class for MGM and UPGG students. Over the years, the course has grown considerably due to demand. For Fall 2023, 82 students from 15 PhD programs enrolled in BIOTRAIN 720 – 12 School of Medicine programs, 1 Pratt PhD program, 1 Nicholas School of the Environment Program, and 1 Arts & Sciences PhD program.

The success of a course this large and logistically challenging depends on the commitment of students, faculty, and staff that contribute to course content and organization.

To all Fall ’23 BIOTRAIN 720 students: You worked hard in both writing and reviewing proposals. We appreciate your commitment to enhancing your critical thinking and scientific writing and reviewing skills. I hope that many of the proposals from class will not only help prepare you for preliminary examinations, but will also be submitted as future fellowship applications!

I am grateful to my Co-Course Directors Doug Marchuk and Carolyn Coyne, as well as the faculty who devoted 18+ contact hours serving as study section co-chairs: Brigid Hogan and Amy McNulty (Cell, Molecular, and Stem Cell Biology), Micah Luftig and John Rawls (Virology and Pathogenesis), Carolyn Coyne and Jörn Coers (Infectious Disease and Immunology), Steve Lisberger and Jeremy Kay (Neurobiology), Xiao-Fan Wang and Tso-Pang Yao (Cancer Biology and Pharmacology), Doug Marchuk and Ashley Chi (Genetics and Genomics), and Kate Hoffman and Beth Sullivan (Environment, Toxicology, and Metabolism).

We were fortunate that Aruna Menon, a 4th year MGM student in David Tobin’s lab, was the TA for BIOTRAIN 720 this Fall. Aruna provided support to the course directors and intellectual feedback to the students. She held weekly office hours and offered several classes to guide students through writing trainee development plans for NIH F awards. Thank you, Aruna, for your important partnership!

OBGE also thanks Amanda Shipp, OBGE Administrative Coordinator, who ensures every year that we reserve enough rooms to hold small-group study sections.

For Fall 2023, 54 faculty participated as lecturers, guest reviewers, study section chairs, and/or co-course directors. Without faculty participation, this course would not be possible! We especially acknowledge Steve Lisberger, chair of the Department of Neurobiology, who will be ending his service as BIOTRAIN 720 Neurobiology study section co-chair after 12 years. It is rare for a busy department chair to faithfully commit 18+ contact hours to teaching, so it is with deep gratitude that we acknowledge Steve for his extraordinary commitment to the students and key partnership in the grant writing course.

THANK YOU, 2023 BIOTRAIN FACULTY REVIEWERS!

Andy Alspaugh

Michel Bagnat

Gerry Blobe

Gurpreet Baht

Nenad Bursac

Yong Chen

Ashley Chi

Jose Ramon Conejo-Garcia

Chris Counter

Greg Crawford

Fred Dietrich

Anita Disney

Chantelle Evans

Guido Ferrari

Tony Filiano

Amy Gladfelter

Lindsey Glickfeld

Simon Gregory

Asiya Gusa

Nick Heaton

Saskia Hemmers

Jillian Hirst

Jeremy Kay

Dennis Ko

Cindy Kuhn

Terry Lechler

Craig Lowe

Jessica McCann

Ed Miao

Ashley Moseman

Trudy Oliver

John Pearson

Ann Marie Pendergast

Tim Reddy

Daniel Saban

Neil Surana

David Tobin

Dmitry Velmeshev

Pelin Volkan

Anne West

Kris Wood

Rebecca Yang

Zhao Zhang


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