Training Grants

Research Training in Otolaryngology

The overall objective of the program is to train physicians in otolaryngology for a career that combines laboratory research with clinical practice. This unique Research Training Program at the University of Pittsburgh enables trainees to develop both basic research and clinical skills. Potential trainees are selected from the outstanding pool of candidates that apply to the Residency or Fellowship Programs in Otolaryngology.

Trainees can select preceptors with research interests that span a variety of disciplines including auditory or vestibular science, neurobiology, allergy and immunology, wound healing and cancer biology. The ultimate goal is for trainees to establish themselves in an academic environment not only as clinician researchers, but also as translational scientists.

Training in Auditory and Vestibular Neuroscience

While considerable progress has been made in identifying the genetic and molecular bases of inner ear deficits, the biological bases of centrally-generated hearing and balance disorders, which are increasingly recognized as major contributors to auditory and vestibular dysfunction, are still poorly understood. This training program, which supports two predoctoral and two postdoctoral trainees per year, is intended to generate auditory and vestibular scientists who can address these problems, through training in basic neuroscience and the clinical aspects of hearing and balance disorders. A group of 15 preceptors who are committed to auditory and vestibular neuroscience research and to recruit and educate outstanding pre- and postdoctoral fellows will comprise the training faculty. The research methodology employed by the preceptors ranges from cellular and molecular to developmental to systems and cognition using a variety of model systems, ensuring that trainees use are exposed to the breadth and variety of technical and conceptual approaches that define modern research in the field.

PI: Karl Kandler, PhD

PI: Bill Yates, PhD