CU Researchers Awarded Grant for Musculoskeletal Research Training Program

October 2022

Researchers from the University of Colorado School of Medicine have been awarded a federal grant to run an interdisciplinary training program in musculoskeletal research. The award provides $1.58 million in funding to support four predoctoral students and two postdoctoral trainees over the next five years.

The program directors are Michael Zuscik, PhD, and Karin Payne, PhD, who are researchers in the Department of Orthopedics on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. The program will include 29 faculty members from 18 departments, divisions, and centers on the four campuses in the CU system.

“This grant will help us build on the cutting-edge research we’re doing, with a common goal of supporting education,” says Zuscik, who is the Mack Clayton Professor of Orthopedics, the department’s vice chair of research, and the director of the Colorado Program for Musculoskeletal Research. “We hope to eliminate barriers and make stronger connections between faculty members. Creating new research happens when faculty have interactions in ways that might not otherwise happen.”

The new training program, funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, will be the only such program in the Rocky Mountain region. It will provide formal educational components, including a musculoskeletal science curriculum, a visiting scientist seminar series, work-in-progress meetings, and an annual symposium. The programming will pair trainees with mentors providing training from bench to bedside.