BBDC RDCRN Career Enhancement Core

Baylor College Of Medicine, Houston TX

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY (Career Enhancement Core) A key goal of the Brittle Bone Disorders Consortium (BBDC) is to nurture a cohort of young investigators to develop the next generation of clinical/translational investigators in rare bone diseases (RBD), especially, osteogenesis imperfecta (OI). The BBDC Career Enhancement Core (CEC) has had a distinguished record in achieving that goal. Over the past 10 years, the BBDC CEC has provided research fellowships to 12 early-stage investigators (ESI) to conduct translational research in RBD and OI. Furthermore, by leveraging Institutional and other resources, BBDC investigators have mentored 17 additional ESI. The impressive impact of our career enhancement activities is best illustrated by the fact that these ESI have collectively published over 600 publications and have procured 12 million USD of independent research funding for OI- and RBD-related research. Additionally, the BBDC CEC has also actively engaged predoctoral trainees in OI research and has sponsored 44 trainees to attend OI-related meetings. As a consortium, we strongly believe that having a patient-centered approach is the central tenet for success in all rare diseases research. Thus, we have actively engaged all our trainees with people with OI and their families, and Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation (OIF), the primary patient advocacy group of the BBDC. This has allowed trainees to appreciate priority topics for research and understand the role of families and PAG in implementing research advances into clinical practice. Finally, by partnering with international professional organizations like the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, American Society of Human Genetics, and the RBD Alliance, BBDC has been at the forefront of engagement with trainees from across the world and dissemination of research advances in OI and RBD. With this submission, we propose to continue our successful tradition of career enhancement. The goals of the CEC are to: 1) To engage with and recruit talented predoctoral trainees, early during their career, into the fields of OI and RBD; 2) Nurture and train talented ESI from various fields of medicine relevant to RBD and OI, by providing research fellowships to protect their research time, delivering a customizable didactic and career development didactics, engaging trainees to utilize clinical data from the BBDC to complement their pilot or mechanistic data, integrating them into RDCRN and RBD academic communities, and showcasing their work at various venues; and 3) help trainees develop a patient-centered approach to research and clinical care by involving them in the education and empowerment of people with OI, their families, and community health care providers. In doing so, the CEC will enrich the pipeline for training future leaders in RBD and have a positive impact on predoctoral trainees, ESI, healthcare professionals, and people with OI across the world. Thus, our consortium's career advancement will have a broad impact on the OI and RBD communities.