This component of the RCE Clinical/Translational Training Program will draw primarily from MD postdoctoral fellows undertaking clinical and research training in the Adult and Pediatric Divisions of Infectious Diseases. DVM fellows seeking training in clinical/translational research will also be eligible. The typical duration of postdoctoral training in the Infectious Diseases Divisions is three years. During the first year, which is devoted to clinical training and is supported from other sources, fellows interested in biodefense-related career development will identify a clinical scientist from Medicine, Pediatrics, Neurology and/or Preventive Medicine and a basic scientist from Microbiology who will jointly supervise two years of additional training in translational/clinical research. To facilitate this process, the candidates will attend seminars presented by the potential faculty mentors and will collaborate with their chosen mentors to prepare brief training proposals that outline the goals and scope of their proposed research, the formal coursework to be undertaken (including training in responsible conduct of research) and how the projects and coursework will prepare them for careers in biodefense-related clinical/translational research. During the second and third years, which will be supported by this RCE grant, training will be tailored to the specific needs of each research fellow based on the biodefense-related problems to be investigated and the long-term career goals of that trainee. It is expected that the duration of clinical/translational research training support for individual fellows from the RCE will usually be two years. Applicants will be selected for appointment to this training program based on evaluation of their qualifications and training proposals by a committee consisting of Drs. Randall Holmes, Robert Schooley and Michael Vasil, and a formal critique of each training proposal will be prepared. The program director (Dr. Holmes) will meet quarterly with each trainee to monitor his/her progress toward accomplishing specific research/training objectives and to obtain feedback about ways to improve the training experience. In addition, the Dr. Holmes will meet with the mentors near the end of each training year to evaluate formally the performance of each trainee. In the initial year, one trainee at the second-year level and one trainee at the third-year level (if available) will be chosen for support. In each subsequent year, it is expected that this program will support two fellows, one in the first year and another in the second year of biodefense-related clinical/translational research training.