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