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Applications are not currently being accepted.
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Please note that appointments in Spring-Summer 2009 will be for one year only, as this will be the last grant year. US citizen/Permanent Resident postdocs will be required to sign the NIH Payback Agreement.
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ELIGIBILITY AND SUPPORT LEVELS
Predoctoral Trainees: Applicants must already be enrolled in one of the participating GCC institutions. Support is available for a maximum of one year, beginning in the second or subsequent years of enrollment in one of the GCC member institutions. Support will include standard NIH stipend ($20,772 in FY09), and a portion of tuition, fees and health insurance. Travel funds will also be provided to attend a required meeting at the NIH. U.S. citizens and U.S. Permanent Residents as well as non-citizens/foreign nationals are eligible to apply.
Postdoctoral Trainees: The applicant must have already received the doctoral degree by the Training Grant application due date, and must already be employed at one of the participating GCC institutions. Support is available for a maximum of one year, beginning in years -00, -01, or -02 (after receipt of the doctoral degree) for both U.S. citizens and U.S.Permanent Residents as well as non-citizens/foreign nationals. Stipends will be at the recommended NIH level for years since receipt of the doctoral degree, and a portion of health insurance may be provided (self-only). US citizen/Permanent Resident postdocs will be required to sign the NIH Payback Agreement.
FORMS AND APPLICATIONS
Graduate Application:
- this application form cannot be saved; it must be completed and submitted at one time
- both predocs and postdocs should include a curriculum plan as part of their mentoring plan
- your mentoring plan can be identical to that used in the mentor recommendation forms of you primary and secondary mentor
- do not use any Greek letters; write out the name (e.g. alpha, beta), as the system turns Greek text into an unreadable symbol
- keep a separate copy of the text portion of your application; you will not receive a final copy after submission, and a screen printout will not show all of the text in the text fields.
- Note: For those who have recently submitted an application to one of the other Keck Center training programs, you may request that some of the same paperwork be used for an application to Pharmacoinformatics. Examples include your transcripts, CV, or non-mentor recommendations. Please contact Melissa Glueck at glueck@rice.edu if you wish to do this.
- Interested individuals may obtain supplemental information and instructions prior to completion and submission of applications for support. These contain specific points that applicants are expected to address in various sections of the application form. Please contact Melissa Glueck at glueck@rice.edu to obtain this information prior to beginning an application.
Mentor Recommendation Form:
- both the primary and secondary mentors must fill out this form; they may use the identical mentoring plan as the applicant
- this form cannot be saved; it must be completed and submitted at one time
- keep a separate copy of the text portion of your recommendation; you will not receive a final copy after submission, and a screen printout may not show all of the text in the text fields
- do not use any Greek letters; write out the name (e.g. alpha, beta), as the system turns Greek text into an unreadable symbol
- the secondary mentor does not need to complete the financial and departmental contact information at the bottom; just type something meaningless into this required field
- both mentors must be members of the Pharmcoinformatics Training Faculty. Applications that involve a mentor or co-mentor who is not a member of the Pharmacoinformatics training faculty will not be considered.
- membership in the Keck Center does not automatically make one a member of the Pharmacoinformatics training faculty; faculty must apply for membership for each grant individually. Please note that, as this is the final year of the training grant, only existing Pharmacoinformatics Training Faculty may mentor applicants.
SUMMARY OF TRAINING GRANT APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS, ELIGIBILITY AND SUPPORT LEVELS, and REQUIRED COMMITMENTS
OVERVIEW
Fellowships are available for pre- and postdoctoral trainees interested in interdisciplinary training in the broad area of drug design and development under the direction of participating Pharmacoinformatics Training Faculty. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows with training/expertise in one or more of the following specific areas -- a contemporary biomedical science (e.g., biochemistry, cell biology, pharmacology, etc.), chemistry, computer science, informatics, mathematics or computational biology, structural biology, medicine, or a related discipline -- are encouraged to apply.
We are seeking individuals who wish to build upon a strong grounding in a specific discipline(s) to obtain interdisciplinary training that will enable them to lead future efforts to conceptualize new therapeutic targets and efficiently and effectively develop corresponding drugs with high probabilities of reaching the market as safe, efficacious agents. We thus seek creative, highly motivated trainees with the potential and desire to work in interdisciplinary teams of scientists in this broad area.
Projects are not required to be primarily "informatic" in nature, but should involve a significant bioinformatic and/or computational element that is specifically identified in the application materials. Applications will also be expected to contain an explicit description of the relevance, or potential relevance, of the trainee's proposed research to the broad area of drug design and development.
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS
All trainees are required to have a primary mentor and a secondary mentor who are members
of the Pharmacoinformatics Training Faculty at the time of the application (Faculty Directory).
Please note that, as this is the final year of the training grant, only existing Pharmacoinformatics Training Faculty may mentor applicants.
- Request 2 Letters of Recommendation from people other than your mentors. Have them email the letters as Word or PDF files to glueck@rice.edu.
- Submit a current resume (as Word or PDF file) outlining your academic history and professional work experience to glueck@rice.edu.
- Email, mail, or fax all undergraduate and graduate transcripts, including a transcript from your current institution (official preferred, unofficial accepted). If the transcript is in a foreign language, you must submit an English translation. Send them to:
Melissa Glueck, Administrative Program Director
Gulf Coast Consortia, MS-141
c/o Rice University
P. O. Box 1892
Houston, TX 77251-1892
Tel: (713) 348-4563 Fax: (713) 348-4659
glueck@rice.edu
SUMMARY OF REQUIRED COMMITMENTS
1) Graduate students will be required to develop a program (approved by the Pharmacoinformatics Training Committee) of coursework, seminars, and other activities that provides exposure to three broad areas related to drug design and development:
a) bioinfomatics and/or computational modeling;
b) structure-based drug design; and
c) pre-clinical evaluation of drug safety, efficacy, and pharmacokinetics.
These activities may be selected from ongoing or planned courses taught by the training grant faculty or offered at participating GCC institutions. It is anticipated that approved courses will in many cases fulfill requirements for the programs at the students' home institutions (e.g., bioinformatics, statistics, structural biology, pharmacology, cell biology, or related requirements).
Postdoctoral fellows are also expected to develop an approved program that provides exposure to the three broad areas noted above. This may be based upon courses or experience in graduate school, prior postdoctoral training, or by auditing courses at GCC institutions while appointed to this training program.
2) All trainees (both pre- and postdoctoral) must attend the weekly Keck Seminar series on Fridays (during the academic year) at 4:00 p.m. on the Rice University campus. Trainees must sign in for each seminar.
3) All trainees are required to attend the Keck Annual Research Conference in October and to present a poster or platform presentation. The 2009 Keck Center Annual Research Conference is scheduled for October 29-30, 2009 in the Houston area. Registration and program information will be available in mid-August.
4) All trainees are expected to attend an annual meeting at NIH for individuals being supported by Roadmap Initiative Training Grants. Travel funds will be provided from the training grant.
5) All trainees are required to have a primary mentor and a secondary mentor who are members of the Pharmacoinformatics Training Faculty at the time of the application (Faculty Directory). Secondary mentors should be in a different area than the primary mentor to foster an interdisciplinary training experience. The basis for the selection of the secondary mentor should be explicitly described in both pre- and postdoctoral applications. Membership in the Keck Center does not automatically grant membership in the Pharmacoinformatics training faculty; one must apply for membership separately. Please note that, as this is the final year of the training grant, only existing Pharmacoinformatics Training Faculty may mentor applicants.
6) All trainees are expected to submit written progress reports, including future project plans, every six months. Oral progress reviews will include a mentor's evaluation and recommendations as well as the trainee's self-evaluation and plans for the future.
7) All trainees are required to take approved training in the Responsible Conduct of Research (ethics) as mandated for all NIH-funded trainees. In most cases, this will be done at the trainee's home institution using established courses/training sessions.
The Keck Center is also committed to providing a wide range of career development opportunities to its trainees. In some cases, opportunities are developed and provided via the Keck Center, but Center also informs trainees about opportunities at all six GCC institutions that are available to them. Trainees will be invited to participate in appropriate outreach, summer undergraduate training activities, and professional and social events from time to time. Trainees are also expected to provide ongoing evaluation to the PI, and to submit a more extensive evaluation when they complete the program.
In most (although not necessarily all) cases, program courses and seminars will be offered on the Rice-TMC campus. In these cases, we endeavor to make arrangements arrangements for videoconferencing with faculty and trainees at UTMB whenever possible, and are committed to making such arrangements as effective and convenient as possible.
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