Grant: Collaborative Research and Training Experience

Classical scientific training programs are primarily anchored in individual disciplines and academic departments and do not provide students with the appropriate interdisciplinary and praxis-oriented training required for the labour market of today. The ""Cellular Dynamics of Macromolecular Complexes"" (CDMC) training program proposed here will help to close this critical gap in a most important area of the molecular biosciences. This program will have a substantial professional development component and provide students with professional skills training as well as training in the commercialization of scientific discoveries, the protection of intellectual property and the practice of research in the private sector and in government. The scientific content of this program responds to the deciphering of genomic information of many organisms that has resulted in an overflow of information on cellular molecular components and their known or predicted interactions. The sum of these molecular interactions has been defined as the ""interactome"" of cells. Many interactions occur at the same time and in order to survive, cells have evolved mechanisms to regulate the molecular interactions between macromolecular partners (proteins, DNA and RNA). Understanding the molecular basis and the dynamics of these interactions requires deciphering which interactions are important to cellular function and to quantify this information. The complexity of these questions constitutes a major challenge and approaches from distinct scientific disciplines (Biology, Chemistry, Informatics) and truly inter-disciplinary training are necessary to advance research in the field. This is a prerequisite for the advancement of scientific knowledge as well as for its commercial applications in the biotech sector and in the pharmaceutical industry.