India-US Research Training Program in Genetics

This Training Program involves an international collaboration between faculty members in the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh in the US and members of The Chatterjee Group-Indian Statistical Institute Centre for Population Genomics (CpG) in Calcutta, India. The overarching goal is to help in genetic-epidemiological capacity building efforts in India. The training program consists a core program of pre- and post-doctoral training, supplemented by various feeder programs (short-term training Workshops and Fellowships), to enhance capacity building and expertise in genetic epidemiology and ethical conduct of human genetics research in India. To obtain a high level of value addition to the training program, the core program will initially be built around an ongoing, ethically approved, genetic epidemiological study in India, the CpG's Marwari Cardiovascular Study. The major loci of the training program will be on statistical and computational genomics, and molecular genomics. The Specific Aims are: 1. To provide multidisciplinary training in genetic epidemiology to three pre- and two post-doctoral trainees from India. Training will be provided both in India (CpG and its affiliate institutions) and in the U.S. (University of Pittsburgh). 2. To provide five short-term (four weeks) Fellowships to scientists engaged in research at CpG and its affiliate institutions to obtain training in the U.S. in specific frontline areas of human genetics. 3. To conduct two intensive short-term training Workshops in India on human genetics, with emphasis on statistical methods in genetic epidemiology and ethical conduct of human genetics research. 4. To offer advanced research training support ('re-entry' funding) to our post-doctoral trainees after completion of their post-doctoral training in Pittsburgh. These re-entry grants will enable our trainees to initiate independent human genetics research projects related to ongoing collaborative research at CpG. This program will help generate well-trained personnel for initiating large-scale genetic epidemiotogical studies of public health significance in India. Through these training programs, collaborations among scientists in India and the U.S.A. will be initiated in human genetics.