The objective of the UT Southwestern Wellstone Training Core is to enhance the educational environment in order to recruit, train, and maintain the next generation of transformative investigators focused on addressing the challenges of muscular dystrophy.

Our approach is three-fold:

• To provide mentoring and financial support for two competitive, pilot and feasibility projects each year focused on advancing our understanding or treatment of any of the diverse forms of muscular dystrophy
• To develop and coordinate educational opportunities that will benefit all investigators and trainees associated with the Wellstone Center by both complementing and leveraging the strengths of existing training programs here at UTSW
• To foster avenues of interaction that will facilitate communication, collaboration, and synergy between the investigators at the UTSW Wellstone Center and those at other Wellstone MDCRC network sites.

Wellstone Pilot Awards

The recipients of the 2016 Wellstone Pilot Awards:

Tranee: Shaida Khan, D.O. (Clinical Fellow in Neuromuscular Disorders)
Title: Cardiac remodeling in neuromuscular-associated cardiomyopathy.
Mentor: Pradeep P.A. Mammen, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine

Trainee: Mark Kittisopikul, Ph.D. (Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Biophysics)
Project Title:  Nanoscale analysis of nuclear structural and mechanical defects in EDMD
Mentor: Khuloud Jaqaman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biophysics

See the previous UTSW Wellstone Pilot Awardees