Project Summary The proposed program will provide support for postgraduate research training within the Department of Anesthesiology within the Health Science Division of Columbia University. Qualified applicants will have committed to or be enrolled in postgraduate training in anesthesiology. The candidate pool is largely derived from an established research residency track (Apgar Scholars Society). The program will provide for four trainees, typically two in their fifth and two in their sixth postgraduate years. Research opportunities are offered by twenty two participating faculty members with proven records of success in the training of postdoctoral fellows, both within the Department of Anesthesiology as well as from seven collaborating departments/divisions, two in basic sciences: Basic Psychiatry (Division of Molecular Therapeutics), Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, and five partnering clinical departments/divisions: Pulmonary Medicine, Cardiology, Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry. Research areas include, but are not limited to, modulation of neurotransmission by excitatory amino acids; molecular mechanisms of neuronal plasticity in chronic pain; structure/function of ligand gated ion channels; smooth muscle cell signaling; adenosine receptor physiology; mechanisms of organ injury and protection from ischemia-reperfusion injury; molecular mechanisms of airway remodeling in chronic lung disease; clinical and basic studies in anesthetic-mediated developmental neurotoxicity, biomarkers of clinical organ injury, and epidemiology studies of clinical outcomes. With the continued support of the Department of Anesthesiology following training, this program will continue to lead to the establishment of independent physician-scientists modern methods and techniques to help meet the research needs of the specialty of anesthesiology in the twenty first century.
