Statement from the Director: Patricia A. D'Amore, Ph.D. Training the next generation of researchers is among the most important, challenging, and rewarding aspects of a scientist's career. The Ophthalmology and Vision Research community at Harvard Medical School takes seriously the responsibility of training, and the post-doctoral training program in "The Molecular Bases of Eye Diseases" is one dimension of this activity. Initiated in 1997 by a grant from the National Eye Institute, this post-doctoral training program has been designed to meet the wide range of opportunities and needs encountered by trainees entering this field of research. To be sure, the faculty who serve as mentors in this program are distinguished scientists who represent virtually all aspects of modern research in vision and ophthalmology. The training they supervise embraces contemporary research technologies in the fields of molecular biology, genetics, gene therapy, and cell biology, and opportunities exist for trainees to make discoveries that can literally "change the world."

It is important to point out that this training program is more than simply superb training in laboratory research. The challenges facing young scientists in the modern era extend well beyond the laboratory, and this program had devised strategies designed to help trainees meet these needs: (a) courses and individualized assistance in learning the art and craft of successful grant writing, (b) opportunities for oral and poster presentations of research data in a setting that is at once critical and supportive, (c) a survey course that introduces trainees to the breadth of complex, unsolved problems in ophthalmology and vision, (d) specialized courses that allow trainees to probe in depth topics of particular interest to individual faculty members and collaborative research groups. Monthly access to the program director and contact with the administrator provide trainees direct access to program administration, and serve as opportunities to effect change that improves the training experience. Individual trainees are encouraged to interact beyond their chosen laboratory in order to benefit from collegiality. Finally, formal and informal opportunities exist to consider and discuss career opportunities and to prepare for the next phase in a promising research career.

This training program rests on a multi-institutional base, with mentors, trainees and laboratories located at The Schepens Eye Research Institute and The Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston's West End, the campus of Harvard Medical School and its affiliated institutions in the Longwood area of southwest Boston, and Harvard College in Cambridge. Although the training grant itself funds 7-8 trainees per year, more than 100 pre- and post-doctoral trainees are in training at these institutions, and the training program embraces all. Periodic events are scheduled and bring together faculty and trainees from these geographically disparate sites. The clinical faculty of the Department of Ophthalmology at Harvard participates actively in the training experience, affording trainees the opportunity to learn first-hand about translational and clinical research.

The post-doctoral training experience prepares young scientists to accept the responsibilities and meet the challenges of a defined career in research. The goal of this training program is to assist in every way possible in making this step a success, in part by maintaining communication and interactions among trainees and faculty at an enthusiastic level, and in part by offering the finest possible training in modern biomedical research.