The aim of the University of Michigan Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology & Diabetes (MEND) Training Program, nearly five decades strong, is to educate postdoctoral trainees possessing MD and/or PhD degrees in preparation for future academic careers in the broad discipline of endocrinology and metabolism. The program provides detailed, mentor-based training in experimental design, laboratory and clinical research techniques and methodology, and interpretation and analysis of results as applicable to the questions of cell and molecular biology, physiology, clinical physiology, clinical therapeutics, and health sciences research that confront the discipline of endocrinology and metabolism.

The University of Michigan MEND Training Program has traditionally maintained and will continue to maintain expertise across a wide spectrum of health problems at every level from basic molecular biology to clinical therapeutics. The recent recognition that advances in the understanding and treatment of disease must be studied for their economic and societal as well as their clinical implications has added an additional tier to the Training Program in outcomes and health sciences research training.

The University of Michigan MEND Training Program sustains its full depth and breadth of research training through its multidisciplinary interdepartmental organization, which is characteristic of academic programs at the University of Michigan . The MEND Training Program includes 37 faculty representing 10 different academic departments, all of whom have peer-reviewed, national research support. The Training Program fully utilizes the broad range of multidisciplinary institutional resources, including:

• Postdoctoral Research Training Program in Cell and Molecular Biology
• Clinical Research Design and Statistical Analysis (CRDSA) Training Program
• General Clinical Research Center (GCRC)
• Michigan Diabetes Research and Training Center (MDRTC)
• Biomedical Research Core Facilities of the Medical School
• Reproductive Science Program (RSP)
• Institutional Training Program for Clinical Research

The Program Director of the MDRTC, the Director of the Molecular and Cell Biology Training Core of the MDRTC, and the Associate Program Director for Education of the GCRC are members of the MEND Training Program faculty, as is the Program Director for the K30 Clinical Research Training Program. The University of Michigan MEND Training Program is thus well-suited academically as well as structurally to identify, train, and launch future leaders in a broad range of endocrinology and metabolism research.