U.T. Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas requests continued support for a graduate and post-graduate Molecular Microbiology Training Program (MMTP). A particularly attractive feature of this MMTP is its departure from conventional program- or departmental-based training to an interdisciplinary program that maintains a microbiology orientation while, at the same time, broadens the scope of the training mission to include many other aspects of molecular and cell biology. 'The diverse backgrounds of the 23 trainers, comprised of a core group of established investigators with accomplished records and an expanding new faculty, represent interdisciplinary research programs bound by the common theme of molecular and cellular microbiology. The training faculty emanate from eight different medical school departments. The overall objective is to train students and postdoctoral fellows for research careers in the molecular basis of microbial pathogenesis, cellular microbiology, host defense mechanisms, vaccine development, and structural biology. The MMTP requests funding for 6 pre-doctoral (Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D.) and 3 post-doctoral positions (Ph.D. or M.D.) each year. In general, activities towards the Ph.D. degree include (1) course work via a customized, flexible training track, (2) attendance and participation in seminars and journal clubs, (3) achievement on written qualifying examinations, (4) annual attendance at a MMTP Research Forum, and (5) intensive research training culminating in the defense of a doctoral dissertation. Post-doctoral fellows (Ph.D. or M.D.) will be provided the opportunity to consolidate basic skills, develop independence in scientific thinking and research planning, and learn new areas of basic scientific inquiry or technology. Fellows also will be involved in teaching graduate students, presenting journal clubs and research seminars, and contributing to the general "ferment" that drives scientific progress. We expect trainees who complete this program to become skilled in applying contemporary approaches in microbiology, biochemistry, molecular genetics, gene arrays, bioinformatics, structural biology, cell biology, and immunology to important problems in the microbiological sciences and to the improvement of preventive and therapeutic intervention strategies. The MMTP currently is only four years old, but there already is evidence of substantial success. Special efforts for the recruitment of under-represented minorities, which already have been successful, will continue. U.T. Southwestern Medical Center offers an outstanding research environment in which to continue this progressive, contemporary training program in molecular microbiology.