Pharmacogenetics of Asthma Treatment

The program, which has operated continuously for the past 30 years, focuses on chronic respiratory disease, particularly Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which are major public health problems. Asthma and COPD are inextricably linked with early childhood factors, including infection, diet, allergen exposure, cigarette smoke exposure, with genetic susceptibility influencing disease expression throughout life. These diseases have increased in prevalence and affect over 10 million Americans and 500 million individuals world wide. There is a critical need for physician-investigators trained in the application of epidemiologic methods to research in respiratory biology. This program is instrumental in meeting this need, successfully training independent research investigators who go on to lead their own research programs across the U.S. and Canada. The program provides research training in 5 areas:

statistics, epidemiologic risk factors, genetics, and health policy.

Six postdoctoral and two pre- doctoral training positions are available. Trainees interact with a pool of 30 faculty members in the 4 research areas. Each trainee has the opportunity to become involved in the design, execution, and analysis of ongoing federally and non-federally funded research projects. Faculty and trainee research is conducted at the Channing Laboratory, a research division of the Department of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH). Postdoctoral trainees undertake didactic classroom work leading to a master’s degree in science (Sc.M.), with a concentration in epidemiology, or in public health (M.P.H.), with a concentration in quantitative methods at the Harvard School of Public Health. After completing our program, trainees are eligible to assume academic research positions in the field of respiratory disease epidemiology at any of a variety of institutions. Trainees also benefit from a close relationship with the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. For the past 10 years, we've had 98% retention of trainees in academic positions. Because T32 training grants cannot fund investigators from outside the US foreign trainees need to have their own, non-NIH, source of funds.

For further information on the training program contact the program director:

Scott T. Weiss M.D., M.S.
Director, Respiratory, Environmental and Genetic Epidemiology
Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Associate Director, Harvard Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics
Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
181 Longwood Ave
Boston MA 02115
Phone: 617 525 2278
Fax: 617 525 2745
traininginfo(at)channing(dot)harvard(dot)edu