Clinical Pharmacology Training Program

Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

Enter the text here that is the new abstract information for your application. This section must be no longer than 30 lines of text. This is a proposal to continue the support of our collaborative postdoctoral training program in adult, pediatric and maternal-fetal clinical pharmacology at Thomas Jefferson University (TJU) and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The mission of our joint program is to train the next generation of drug development scientists to ensure innovation in therapeutics that transforms disease management. To accomplish this, we seek to identify basic, translational, and clinical investigators with an interest in adult, pediatric and/or maternal-fetal therapeutics, and provide a curriculum that prepares trainees for research careers in academia, industry, or regulatory agencies. The program is designed for postdoctoral fellows, including MDs, MD-PhDs, PharmDs, and PhDs, leveraging the exceptional research environment of our two institutions to support training that addresses workforce needs in the field. Our 2-year program pairs a well-established curriculum of didactic coursework, conferences, and rotations with mentored research in mechanism-based discovery, drug development, pharmacometrics, experimental medicine, and drug safety; the majority of fellows’ time is focused on hypothesis-driven research. The breadth of pediatric and adult clinical pharmacology is delivered using a framework built on the TJU Training Program in Human Investigation. Courses cover clinical pharmacology, clinical trials design, biostatistics, pharmacoepidemiology, pharmacometrics, regulatory science, research ethics, data management, leadership, grant writing and presentation skills. Advanced training in academic and industrial pharmacometrics is an elective offering. Conferences include journal club in human therapeutics, research ethics, and seminars in human therapeutics. Rotations provide experience in the critical analysis of the scientific literature on the editorial board of the Annals of Internal Medicine; critical review of human subjects research on our institutional review boards (IRBs); clinical trial execution in the TJU Clinical Research Unit or within the inpatient setting at CHOP; or analytic method development to support trainee pharmacokinetic studies. Fellows customize their education by selecting electives congruent with career aspirations, including off-site rotations at industrial drug development partners and/or regulatory agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Opportunities in pediatric and adult experimental therapeutics are offered by 55 preceptors representing 6 broad areas of distinction, including cancer biology, cardiopulmonary medicine, neurosciences, immunology and infectious diseases, neonatology and maternal therapeutics, and pediatric therapeutics. Preceptors are selected based on their productive research programs related to therapeutics, training success, and commitment to training. This program will continue to build upon an exemplary record of recruiting trainees who have been uniformly successful in academia, the biopharmaceutical industry, and the FDA.