Abstract
The translation of biomaterial based and regenerative therapies from the laboratory to patients involves multiple challenges. One of the most pressing challenges is the educational one: to train a cohort of scientists and engineers capable of translating their discoveries from bench to market to clinic. To meet this need, translational training programs are being implemented globally at universities and as partnerships between universities and corporations. In this perspective, we describe two translational NIH T32 graduate and postgraduate training programs that augment the traditional approach to training early stage scientists and engineers. At the graduate level, Boston University developed and implemented the Translational Research in Biomaterials (TRB) predoctoral training program. At the postgraduate level, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, developed and implemented the Translational Research in Regenerative Medicine (TRRM) program for postdoctoral training. These programs are motivated by the need for training in translational research in the biomedical field, by young scientists' requests for such training, and by the fundamental challenges facing future discovery and clinical implementation of biomaterial-based technologies. The TRB program immerses trainees in the concept of translating an idea from the research laboratory to the clinic, introduces them to the challenges of such an endeavor, provides discussions with relevant faculty (for example, with businesses, patient care, or clinical trial experience), and educates them in the critical areas required for their future careers. Similarly, the TRRM program emphasizes translational research and the concept of "training without borders," which enables collaborations across several geographically dispersed institutions so as to make regional experts accessible regardless of where they are located physically. Both programs promote interdisciplinary research, expose young scientists and engineers to challenges outside of their specialty, and build interpersonal skills for cross-disciplinary communication. The TRB program focuses on quantitative science and engineering courses, together with translation-based courses in clinical trials and business. The TRRM program focuses on broadening the horizon of its trainees through exposure to a wider network of mentors than traditional postdoctoral programs, and by encouraging trainees to engage in collaborative research across at least two different laboratories. Both programs meet significant public health needs: the skills that trainees acquire are essential in future biomedical careers as they join teams that combine diverse backgrounds to meet a common goal in research, development, and ultimately commercialization.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3919-3926 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue number | 12 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 10 2018 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Biomaterials
- Biomedical Engineering
Keywords
- biomaterials
- graduate education
- postdoctoral training
- predoctoral training
- regenerative medicine
- translation
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In: ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering, Vol. 4, No. 12, 10.12.2018, p. 3919-3926.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review
TY - JOUR
T1 - Predoctoral and Postdoctoral Training Pipeline in Translational Biomaterials Research and Regenerative Medicine
AU - Grinstaff, Mark W.
AU - Kaplan, Hilton M.
AU - Kohn, Joachim
N1 - Funding Information: †Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, and Medicine, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, United States ‡New Jersey Center for Biomaterials, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, United States ABSTRACT: The translation of biomaterial based and regenerative therapies from the laboratory to patients involves multiple challenges. One of the most pressing challenges is the educational one: to train a cohort of scientists and engineers capable of translating their discoveries from bench to market to clinic. To meet this need, translational training programs are being implemented globally at universities and as partnerships between universities and corporations. In this perspective, we describe two translational NIH T32 graduate and postgraduate training programs that augment the traditional approach to training early stage scientists and engineers. At the graduate level, Boston University developed and implemented the Translational Research in Biomaterials (TRB) predoctoral training program. At the postgraduate level, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, developed and implemented the Translational Research in Regenerative Medicine (TRRM) program for postdoctoral training. These programs are motivated by the need for training in translational research in the biomedical field, by young scientists’ requests for such training, and by the fundamental challenges facing future discovery and clinical implementation of biomaterial-based technologies. The TRB program immerses trainees in the concept of translating an idea from the research laboratory to the clinic, introduces them to the challenges of such an endeavor, provides discussions with relevant faculty (for example, with businesses, patient care, or clinical trial experience), and educates them in the critical areas required for their future careers. Similarly, the TRRM program emphasizes translational research and the concept of “training without borders,” which enables collaborations across several geographically dispersed institutions so as to make regional experts accessible regardless of where they are located physically. Both programs promote interdisciplinary research, expose young scientists and engineers to challenges outside of their specialty, and build interpersonal skills for cross-disciplinary communication. The TRB program focuses on quantitative science and engineering courses, together with translation-based courses in clinical trials and business. The TRRM program focuses on broadening the horizon of its trainees through exposure to a wider network of mentors than traditional postdoctoral programs, and by encouraging trainees to engage in collaborative research across at least two different laboratories. Both programs meet significant public health needs: the skills that trainees acquire are essential in future biomedical careers as they join teams that combine diverse backgrounds to meet a common goal in research, development, and ultimately commercialization. KEYWORDS: biomaterials, regenerative medicine, translation, graduate education, predoctoral training, postdoctoral training B iomaterials are revolutionizing the field of medicine. Since the first introduction of metal hip prostheses in the 1930s, biomaterials have been applied to an exponentially increasing number of clinical challenges and today are key components in drug delivery systems, diagnostic devices, and tissue engineering technologies.1−5 A combination of advances in basic science and engineering has enabled the development of new processing methods and compositionally complex materials possessing novel properties and enhanced performance characteristics. Simultaneously, the field of regenerative medicine has evolved from largely experimental concepts in tissue engineering in the late 1980s into stem cell and scaffold-based therapies for regenerating functional tissues, rather than treating diseases in the traditional sense.6 The challenges of successfully translating these biomaterials and therapies from the laboratory to the marketplace have also evolved.7 These challenges are scientific, translational, commercial, and educational,8−11 and thus we believe that the traditional approach to training early stage scientists and engineersthrough primarily the scientific and engineering aspects of biomaterials and regenerative therapiescan be augmented through innovative translational training programs. This need is being recognized globally by a number of academic institutions that, with the support of national and international government and private funding agencies, have implemented translational training programs. One example is the Innovative Training Program funded by the European Commission through Marie Curie Fellowships, which enables fellows to collaborate with partners from academia and industry in preparation for bridging the divide between universities, research centers, and companies that focus on research innovation and entrepreneurship. Similarly, the Biodesign Innovation Fellowship program at Stanford University takes a project-based approach for trainees to find innovative solutions for current healthcare needs. Funding Information: Another example is Dartmouth’s PhD Innovation Program, which trains aspiring engineers to become entrepreneurs and translate their ideas into viable commercial products. Furthermore, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States and National Institute of Health Research in the United Kingdom are each implementing translational training programs. Some other training programs, such as Synergy Scholars Program at Dartmouth College and Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center, emphasize clinical aspects of translational training. More than 60 institutions in the United States have received support from the NIH through their Clinical and Translational Science Awards. Herein, we provide an in-depth look at two case studies of NIH funded T32 translational training programs: Boston University (BU) has created the Translational Research in Biomaterials (TRB) predoctoral training program, and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (RU), has created the Translational Research in Regenerative Medicine (TRRM) training program for postdoctoral trainees. Together, these programs exemplify an approach or pipeline for training young scientists/engineers in translation and toward developing their discoveries into clinically relevant therapies. Funding Information: The TRB program was initiated as a pilot project in 2007 with funding from BU, and went on to receive support from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2009, and again in 2015 through the T32 Training Program funding mechanism. The TRRM program began at RU in 2002 as a T32 postdoctoral training program funded by the NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), transitioned in 2007 to NIBIB funding, and has evolved over 15 years (three cycles), with a fourth cycle planned. The goal of these programs is to train interdisciplinary, translational research scientists and engineers who understand the importance of communicating and collaborating with clinicians and industry experts at every stage of research and development, as well as being able to discern the broader issues of translating laboratory advances to the marketplace. Funding Information: TRB Outcomes. In terms of trainee outcomes, all of the graduated TRB trainees are employed as postdoctoral fellows or engineers/scientists in start-up biomedical companies. The average PhD completion time of these students was five years. As a group, the current TRB’s 13 trainees have excelled on several fronts, from publications and presentations to patent applications and outreach. The metrics of the graduated trainees (8) include: publications (5/trainee); patents/patent applications (0.5/trainee); oral (3/trainee) and poster (13/ trainee) presentations at local, national, and international meetings; 100% completion of coursework; participation in societal/community activities (e.g., President of the BU Student Association of Graduate Engineers and tutoring middle school students); and national fellowships/awards (0.75/trainee). The metrics are slightly above the graduates in the traditional BU BME PhD program (e.g., 4 publications, 2 oral presentations, 3 poster presentations, 0.15 patents, and 0.1 awards per student). TRB students have embraced the TRB curriculum, which goes beyond quantitative engineering to include business and clinical courses, as well as professional development. All trainees have been supported after their TRB funding ended through independently written fellowships (one NIH NRSA F31, three NSF GRFP awards, one US Pharmacopeial Global Fellowship Award, and one CIMIT Engineering Fellowship) or through the NIH R21/R01 grants of their mentors. Funding Information: TRRM Program. The TRRM postdoctoral training program has focused on two innovative features. First, the implementation of the concept of a geographically dispersed training faculty, based on a unique team of mentors irrespective of their institutional affiliation. This made it possible to serve a wider range of highly qualified trainees who might not have been able to relocate to a specific institution; and for them to take advantage of strongly matched collaborators, and projects at all stages in the development pipeline. Second, the conventional training toward a tenured faculty position (state-of-the-art science, proposal writing, ethical conduct of research) was augmented with training in translational research and the pathways of commercialization. The current funding cycle (2012−2017) demonstrated that it is possible to create a “community of learning” across a geographically dispersed postdoctoral training program. Trainees were offered access to 14 research and clinical faculty across six partner institutions. Each year, the program supported six postdoctoral trainees through the NIH, complemented by three matched Rutgers positions and 8 affiliated postdoctoral associates who were supported by other funding. The core strength of the program is its interdisciplinary breadth, providing trainees with opportunities to conduct research on rationally designed biomaterials, bioactive signaling microenvironments, cell profiling technologies, and regenerative biology of stem cells. Although these projects are anchored across a wide range of scientific disciplines, it is the co-mentoring arrangements and collaborations across the mentoring network that create unexpected synergies, true to the spirit of “training without borders”. Funding Information: Mark W. Grinstaff is the Distinguished Professor of Translational Research and a Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering, and Medicine as well as the Director of the NIH T32 Program in Biomaterials at Boston University. Dr. Grinstaff’s awards include the ACS Nobel Laureate Signature Award, NSF Career Award, Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, and the Edward M. Kennedy Award for Health Care Innovation. He is a Fellow of the Royal Chemical Society, American Academy of Nanomedicine, and American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineering, and a Founding Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Over the course of his tenure, Dr. Grinstaff’s groundbreaking research has yielded more than 275 peer-reviewed publications, more than 200 patents and patent applications, and more than 300 oral presentations. He is a cofounder of five companies, and his efforts and innovative ideas have led to one new FDA-approved pharmaceutical (AbraxaneTM) and three medical device products (OcuSeal and Adherus Surgical Sealants) that improve clinical care for hundreds of thousands of people. His current research activities involve the synthesis of new macromolecules and biomaterials, self-assembly chemistry, imaging contrast agents, drug delivery, and wound repair. Funding Information: Joachim Kohn is the Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University, the Director of the NJ Center for Biomaterials, and Director of the NIH T32 Program in Translational Research in Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Kohn is a leader in biomaterials science and widely known for the development of tyrosine-derived, resorbable polymers, which are now used in several FDA-approved medical devices. Currently about 200 000 patients in the USA, Canada, Latin America, and Europe are using implants containing tyrosine-derived, resorbable polymers commercialized by REVA Medical and Medtronic. Kohn has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications, 40 book chapters, and more than 70 issued U.S. patents. Since 2008, he directs the Rutgers-Cleveland Consortium of the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM), a $50 Million program funded by the Department of Defense. His current research efforts focus on the development of new discovery paradigms for revolutionary biomaterials using combinatorial and computational methods to optimize the composition, properties, and cellular responses of biomaterials for specific applications, particularly tissue engineering and drug delivery. Funding Information: M.W.G. and J.K. are grateful for support from the U.S. National Institutes of Health. M.W.G. also acknowledges research support from the National Science Foundation. J.K. acknowledges research support from the Department of Defense. The NIH National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering supported the T32 program for predoctoral training (T32EB006359, M.W.G.) and the T32 program for postdoctoral training (T32EB005583, J.K.). Publisher Copyright: © 2017 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2018/12/10
Y1 - 2018/12/10
N2 - The translation of biomaterial based and regenerative therapies from the laboratory to patients involves multiple challenges. One of the most pressing challenges is the educational one: to train a cohort of scientists and engineers capable of translating their discoveries from bench to market to clinic. To meet this need, translational training programs are being implemented globally at universities and as partnerships between universities and corporations. In this perspective, we describe two translational NIH T32 graduate and postgraduate training programs that augment the traditional approach to training early stage scientists and engineers. At the graduate level, Boston University developed and implemented the Translational Research in Biomaterials (TRB) predoctoral training program. At the postgraduate level, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, developed and implemented the Translational Research in Regenerative Medicine (TRRM) program for postdoctoral training. These programs are motivated by the need for training in translational research in the biomedical field, by young scientists' requests for such training, and by the fundamental challenges facing future discovery and clinical implementation of biomaterial-based technologies. The TRB program immerses trainees in the concept of translating an idea from the research laboratory to the clinic, introduces them to the challenges of such an endeavor, provides discussions with relevant faculty (for example, with businesses, patient care, or clinical trial experience), and educates them in the critical areas required for their future careers. Similarly, the TRRM program emphasizes translational research and the concept of "training without borders," which enables collaborations across several geographically dispersed institutions so as to make regional experts accessible regardless of where they are located physically. Both programs promote interdisciplinary research, expose young scientists and engineers to challenges outside of their specialty, and build interpersonal skills for cross-disciplinary communication. The TRB program focuses on quantitative science and engineering courses, together with translation-based courses in clinical trials and business. The TRRM program focuses on broadening the horizon of its trainees through exposure to a wider network of mentors than traditional postdoctoral programs, and by encouraging trainees to engage in collaborative research across at least two different laboratories. Both programs meet significant public health needs: the skills that trainees acquire are essential in future biomedical careers as they join teams that combine diverse backgrounds to meet a common goal in research, development, and ultimately commercialization.
AB - The translation of biomaterial based and regenerative therapies from the laboratory to patients involves multiple challenges. One of the most pressing challenges is the educational one: to train a cohort of scientists and engineers capable of translating their discoveries from bench to market to clinic. To meet this need, translational training programs are being implemented globally at universities and as partnerships between universities and corporations. In this perspective, we describe two translational NIH T32 graduate and postgraduate training programs that augment the traditional approach to training early stage scientists and engineers. At the graduate level, Boston University developed and implemented the Translational Research in Biomaterials (TRB) predoctoral training program. At the postgraduate level, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, developed and implemented the Translational Research in Regenerative Medicine (TRRM) program for postdoctoral training. These programs are motivated by the need for training in translational research in the biomedical field, by young scientists' requests for such training, and by the fundamental challenges facing future discovery and clinical implementation of biomaterial-based technologies. The TRB program immerses trainees in the concept of translating an idea from the research laboratory to the clinic, introduces them to the challenges of such an endeavor, provides discussions with relevant faculty (for example, with businesses, patient care, or clinical trial experience), and educates them in the critical areas required for their future careers. Similarly, the TRRM program emphasizes translational research and the concept of "training without borders," which enables collaborations across several geographically dispersed institutions so as to make regional experts accessible regardless of where they are located physically. Both programs promote interdisciplinary research, expose young scientists and engineers to challenges outside of their specialty, and build interpersonal skills for cross-disciplinary communication. The TRB program focuses on quantitative science and engineering courses, together with translation-based courses in clinical trials and business. The TRRM program focuses on broadening the horizon of its trainees through exposure to a wider network of mentors than traditional postdoctoral programs, and by encouraging trainees to engage in collaborative research across at least two different laboratories. Both programs meet significant public health needs: the skills that trainees acquire are essential in future biomedical careers as they join teams that combine diverse backgrounds to meet a common goal in research, development, and ultimately commercialization.
KW - biomaterials
KW - graduate education
KW - postdoctoral training
KW - predoctoral training
KW - regenerative medicine
KW - translation
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85058328880&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.7b00268
DO - 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.7b00268
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85058328880
SN - 2373-9878
VL - 4
SP - 3919
EP - 3926
JO - ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering
JF - ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering
IS - 12
ER -