Home › DIVISIONS › Allergy-Immunology › Training Grant ›

Northwestern University Allergy Immunology Research Program (NUAIR)

in

Information for Trainees — Course Work

Required Courses for trainees in the T32 NUAIR Program

  • Introductory Immunology Course (Division of Allergy-Immunology, see above): 15 sessions of 1h over 3 months. Trainees must reach an average of over 75 out of 100 points in its 3 examinations.

  • Introduction to Biostatistics (Dept. Preventive Medicine, Course PH302) 26 1.5 hour sessions over 3 months

  • Training in Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) (Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute) 10 2 hour sessions over 5 weeks

  • Human Research Subjects’ Protection Course: The Northwestern University Institutional Review Board (IRB) 3 hour course

  • Grantsmanship for the Research Professional. Holly Falk-Krzesinski, PhD, a faculty member in Allergy-Immunology, is the Director of the Northwestern University Office for Research Development. Her role is to catalyze new collaborative research programs within Northwestern and with outside institutions. She teaches a comprehensive 2-day seminar on how to find grant sources, grant writing and grant submission.

Other Courses of the Division of Allergy-Immunology:

  • Clinical Orientation Course (Faculty Coordinator: Dr. Saltoun): Over 5 weeks beginning in July the clinical faculty lectures on the main diseases of our specialty on Tuesdays and Fridays (3h per week). Although primarily geared for the starting clinical fellows, bench researchers can learn more about the clinical correlates of their disease models in animals.

  • Laboratory techniques (Faculty Coordinator: Dr. Favoreto): In preparation for discussions of papers in our Journal Club, we have created this course to teach the main techniques and technology used in the bench lab. We discuss 2 techniques (30 min each) once a week on Tuesdays for 4 weeks in August.

Optional Courses

  • There are numerous courses at Northwestern University that our trainees may take depending on their research interests. Trainees will be allowed to take additional optional courses so long as the time devoted to the courses does not impair the >75% (>30h/week) effort doing research in the lab (see Appendix, page A105).

  • There are several basic science courses from the 2 large interdisciplinary graduate programs: Integrated Graduate Program in the Life Sciences (IGP, based at the Feinberg School of Medicine - 22 courses), and the Inter-Departmental Biological Sciences Program (IBiS, based at the Weinberg School of Arts and Sciences – 17 courses).

  • Trainees in clinical research may become interested in the Master of Science in Clinical Investigation (MSCI) program, a degree course that takes 2 years to complete. This program includes classes on epidemiology, biostatistics, clinical research methodology, health economics, health policies, research ethics, clinical trials, and behavioral research. One of our faculty members has taken this course (Saltoun). In addition, there is a Masters in Public Health program with a similar curriculum, but with more emphasis on Public Health. Both Master’s programs are based at the Department of Public Health. Our Division will pay for the tuition.

  • All faculty, trainees and research personnel conducting animal research must complete the basic online Training Course on Laboratory Animal Use provided through the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) Learning Library (https://www.aalaslearninglibrary.org/). This is a requirement of the Northwestern University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).