An example of what an F30 Sponsor Information might look like. This is a bit old at this point, so some requirements may have changed.
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Here is a sponsor information template for an F30 (MD/PhD). It can probably equally well apply to an F31 if you cut out the medical school stuff. Also variants of this outline can probably apply to other private fellowships as well, probably with some streamlining.
Previously sponsored predoctoral students:
[List of previous students here]
Previously supported postdoctoral fellows:
[List of previous postdocs here]
developed an extensive training plan for <YOURNAME> that suits her wide-ranging academic interests and goals as a combined MD-PhD student. (This training plan has been developed in conjunction with <>, with whom my lab has long-standing collaborative ties.) works at the interface of engineering, genomics, and biology, and provides a highly interdisciplinary environment in which <YOURNAME> will gain expertise in and combine molecular biology, high-throughput sequencing data analysis, RNA FISH methods development, fluorescence microscopy for RNA imaging, image processing, and statistical analysis towards answering questions about <PROJECT>. <YOURNAME> has initiated a with <WHATEVER>. In combination, this training plan will enable <YOURNAME> to answer long-standing questions about <PROJECT> and establish a strong foundation for a career as a physician-scientist.
<YOURNAME>’s training includes a set of classes, seminars, and research collaborations that we have developed in order to create a rich set of experiences that will enable her to gain training in and make connections in a wide variety of academic fields. Beyond the rigorous medical school coursework at Penn, <YOURNAME> has taken fundamental courses in , genomics, statistics, and computational biology through graduate groups at the Perelman School of Medicine. As part of her qualifying exam in the <GRADGROUP> program, <YOURNAME> also received training in . I believe that taking courses in their home departments (rather than, for example the watered-down genome science in the Engineering school) is the best way to develop a deeper and more sophisticated understanding of different fields. Further, it forces students to go through the exercise of forging connections between disciplines on their own. <YOURNAME> has completed such a graduate curriculum with distinction, achieving among the highest grades in multiple classes at Penn. Related to this, <YOURNAME> is taking full advantage of the wide range of seminars here at Penn and at CHOP. She regularly attends seminars given by invited speakers on topics including fundamental aspects of and the clinical relevance of single-cell biology, gene expression regulation, epigenetics, and genomics. <YOURNAME> also attends genetics research-in-progress talks semi-weekly, and semi-monthly group meetings with Dr. XYZ’s and Dr. ABC’s laboratories. At each of these meetings, <YOURNAME> makes a .
, <YOURNAME> will remain connected to clinical training through the MSTP’s Clinical Connections program. Through this, she will spend time with physician-scientist mentors in the clinic, likely at <CHOP/HUP/WHEREVERYOUTHINK>.
training will also be greatly enriched by strong collaborations that we have established to achieve her research goals. It is important to note that <YOURNAME> collected much of her preliminary data in the lab of her co-sponsor Dr. XYZ. <YOURNAME> has worked closely within this collaboration to obtain expert guidance and technical support on many biological aspects of her project, including choice of well-studied gene targets in the context of transcriptional regulation and technical expertise in ChIP and higher order chromatin capture technologies. As this project continues, <YOURNAME> will meet with Dr. XYZ at least twice per year to review her findings and progress. This collaboration has already proven very fruitful, and I believe that her position at the nexus of this joint effort will provide <YOURNAME> with a highly unique and rich training experience.
<YOURNAME> will develop a wide-ranging set of skills and techniques during her training. She will learn or improve on her existing proficiency in all the standard tools in molecular biology, including cloning, PCR, etc. as well as with combining RNA FISH with flow cytometry. She will also learn a variety of established assays for epigenetic profiling, including ChIP-seq, fixed-cell ATAC-seq, chromatin capture technologies, as well as novel CUT&RUN variants. Further, <YOURNAME> will gain complementary training in all the computational and analytical aspects of these experiments. with computational image processing, high-throughput sequencing data, and statistical analysis of the image-based and genome-wide datasets we generate in the lab. <YOURNAME> will fashion and improve our pipeline for processing ChIP sequencing data.
Lastly, I will mentor <YOURNAME> on science communication skills. <YOURNAME> has presented several posters and talks on her work, both on-campus and at national scientific conferences. I provide her with feedback not just on the scientific content, but also on the quality of her writing and organizational strategy. I will continue to work closely with <YOURNAME> on her posters, abstracts, manuscripts and talks, so that she develops not only as a scientist, but also as an effective writer and an engaging public speaker.
In my lab to date, I have had XYZ graduate students complete training, including ABC MD-PhDs, of which ABC-1 completed a thesis within 4 years. This record demonstrates my ability to successfully mentor students, even within the relatively short time frame desired by students in the MSTP. Currently, I have 10 students in lab including <YOURNAME>, and they are evenly distributed at different points in their training. The two most senior students have published first-authorship publications and will be defending their theses by the end of 2019. Many are still starting but have already published first-author papers or are on track to do so in the near future.
I also have experience training graduate students in other contexts, both in the classroom and otherwise. I am actively involved in just about every biomedical graduate group on campus and have participated in many prelim exams and thesis committees for students in these groups. Numerous of these students have now successfully completed their PhDs. Additionally, I teach a class that I have designed on molecular systems biology, which, while listed in Bioengineering, attracts many students from other graduate groups as well. It is a class I have developed from scratch and is mostly based on the primary literature with the goal of having students think critically and quantitatively about different aspects of molecular biology.
The research environment in which <YOURNAME> will primarily be working is our lab, situated in the Genetics department on Penn’s campus. My lab is highly interdisciplinary, with students and post-doctoral fellows coming from fields including Cell Biology, Genetics, Bioengineering, Cancer Biology, Biochemistry & Biophysics, and Genomics & Computational Biology. We have established a very collaborative culture in the lab, which allows students to learn a variety of skills and techniques from each other and participate in intellectual discussion. For instance, <YOURNAME> worked very closely with <PEOPLE IN LAB YOU’VE WORKED WITH> and developed the ideas for this project proposal. Furthermore, <collaborators/cosponsor> have been integral to helping to develop this project and providing us resources, and they are only a short walk away—no more than 15 minutes walk from door to door.
In terms of facilities and equipment required to carry out the proposed research, our lab has everything required for cutting edge research in molecular biology, cell culture, and RNA FISH methods development. Moreover, our lab houses state of the art tools for microscopy, including five fully automated and equipped fluorescence microscopes suitable for single-molecule RNA FISH. We also have computational resources for analysis of high-throughput imaging and sequencing data, including our own dedicated computing servers. As part of the broader Penn community, we can access many more facilities, equipment, and services, including flow cytometry facilities, next generation sequencing facilities, and high-performance computational clusters. The XYZ lab is well-equipped for biochemical assays like ChIP and Capture-C and is only a few floors down from the CHOP flow cytometry core.
All of these training opportunities and resources are critical to <YOURNAME>’s career development as a physician-scientist. <YOURNAME> is committed to a career in which she is able to perform basic science combining biology and computational analyses and translate research insights into improved clinical outcomes. I think the interdisciplinary training she will receive here will give her the foundation to make the interdisciplinary connections necessary for studying the molecular basis of transcriptional heterogeneity and its implications. Further, the opportunities that exist here at Penn to work with experts in a wide range of scientific and clinical fields will enable her to expand her connections to and expertise in a variety of disciplines of interest to her.
ABC predoctoral trainees
XYZ postdoctoral trainees
Applicant's Qualifications and Potential for a Research Career
<PESTER ARJUN TO WRITE THIS FOR YOU AND PUT THE 2ISH PAGES HERE. THIS IS ESSENTIALLY A LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION.>
Faculty member role on project and grant title
Source of support, Grant number, and status
Project period
Current year direct costs awarded
PI, The Big Grant
NSF CAREER MCB-123456
07/01/14 – 06/30/20
$XY,XYZ