PID Fellowship Research Opportunities with Dr. Jason Weinberg

The following is an computer-generated summary of the video transcript.

Our fellows usually have two years of protected time to really devote to their research projects. And we provide that protected time. because we really recognize that that protected time is essential to build up a research program to be successful during fellowship, but also because it serves as the foundation for a research project. That often helps the transition from fellowship to early faculty years. The process actually starts even before the fellow arrives here, even during the interview process, when the program director or associate program director talks with the fellow to get a sense for what things they might be interested in so that again, even before they get here, we can help make some connections to faculty in our division or faculty in other divisions and departments here at the university. And then once the fellow arrives again, the program director, along with other faculty in the division, worked closely with the fellow to develop some ideas about what they might be interested in be it clinical research, laboratory, basic science research like I do in my laboratory. Much of the early training happens through interactions with the research mentor, one on one meetings, working through different techniques or different ways to analyze data and also working with other people in that person's research group. There can be a series of laboratory meetings, divisional or department seminars or other types of conferences that can provide relevant training and many of the core facilities here at the University of Michigan also offer some instruction in different techniques to help with that research background. In addition, the department's core curriculum for our fellowship programs incorporates a variety of topics that are related to research beyond that there are other opportunities that are available depending on the fellows research interests. For instance, many of our fellows have taken advantage of a series of short courses offered through the School of Public Health that are focused on the basics of epidemiology and biostatistics that can very much support interests and projects that are focused on clinical research. Formal advanced degree opportunities are also available, such as a master's in health and healthcare research and a master's in clinical research design and statistical analysis. Those are offered through a fellowship coordinated by the CHEAR unit, the child health evaluation and research center, and fellows in our program are able to apply for positions in that fellowship program. During the Peds ID fellowship, our fellows have the opportunity to hone their writing and presentation skills under the direction of their research mentors with input from their scholarship oversight committees and feedback from other faculty and even other fellows in the division. Our fellows have published their work in a variety of clinical and basic science journals in our field and they have the opportunity to present their research at local meetings such as the department's annual pediatric research symposium and wide variety of other regional and national meetings. My laboratory studies viral pathogenesis which is the complicated interactions between pathogen in our case the virus and the host immune and inflammatory responses that contribute to control of infection, but in many cases also contribute to disease manifestations. So over the years, much of what we've done has been focused on the adenoviruses, which are very common viruses that cause respiratory infection, G.I. Infections and many other types of disease. More recently, we've used what we've learned about the adenoviruses to start to study coronavirus is in particular the role that the immunoproteasome, an important host function, might play in both control of infection and manifestations of disease. Jacob is a senior here at the University of Michigan, who's been working in the lab for about a year now. So Jacob's already become a very important part of the laboratory group and he's one of the inaugural recipients of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society's Summer Research Scholars Awards, which is an award mechanism through that foundation that supports promising young investigators interested in research in our field.