There is an urgent need for more trained researchers to help advance scientific knowledge and future medical breakthroughs for the rising burdens of kidney, urologic, and hematologic diseases.

The new Connecticut KUH Research Training (CKRT) Program, is answering the urgent call as a new collaboration established between UConn School of Medicine and Yale School of Medicine with grant funding just awarded by the NIH’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).

UConn and Yale are committed to producing the next generation of researchers with expertise in these critical research fields of nephrology, urology, and hematology to fill the current healthcare workforce gap. Their new joint program will be bolstering the research training and career development of predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees across these fields.

Each trainee in the program will be paired with a primary research mentor and a mentoring team focused on research success and career development across both UConn and Yale. Trainees will have the opportunity to receive world-class mentorship at both research institutions through the new program’s state-of-the-art curriculum and the academic medical centers’ two collaborative community networks.

Trainees accepted into the new program will be mentored by a community of more than 45 expert preceptors, integrating research areas of genomics, epidemiology, bioengineering, computational science, and clinical trials and across four coordinated core areas— Administrative, Training, Networking, and Professional Development.

“This award recognizes the strength and commitment of Connecticut’s academic medical centers. It reflects our shared commitment to advancing research training in kidney, urologic, and hematologic diseases,” says The Connecticut KUH Research Training Program’s Principal Investigator for UConn Health Dr. Yanlin Wang, chief of the Division of Nephrology in the Department of Medicine at UConn School of Medicine.

The new program’s successful founding is thanks to the teamwork and contributions of UConn and Yale, especially UConn Center on Aging’s Dr. George Kuchel and Chief of Nephrology Dr. Yanlin Wang for serving on the Administrative Core; and UConn School of Medicine’s Dr. Marja Hurley for serving on the Networking and Training Cores, Dr. Vanessa Scanlon for serving on the Professional Development and Training Cores, Dr. Iman Al-Naggar for serving on the Networking Core, and UConn researchers Dr. Biree Andemariam, Dr. Margaret K. Callahan, and Dr. Anthony Vella for serving on the Internal Advisory Committee, along with the strong support of leaders such as UConn Chair of Medicine Dr. Francesco Celi, medical school dean Dr. Bruce T. Liang, and dental school dean Dr. Steven Lepowsky.

This research effort is supported by the National Institute Of Diabetes And Digestive And Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number U2CDK143943 and TL1DK151273. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Applications for the program’s first cohort are being accepted now. Apply today at: ckrt.org/apply/

For more information about the program, please visit: ckrt.org.