Welcome to TRIO, the North Carolina Kidney, Urology, and Hematology Training, Research, Innovation, and Outreach Program (NC KUH TRIO Program)! This program is a trio of academic medical centers and a trio of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in North Carolina with world-class research and mentoring expertise in Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic (KUH) specialties.
The goal of TRIO is to improve care and outcomes for patients with KUH diseases. TRIO combines strong institutional support for learning and discovery with well-funded and committed KUH investigators and mentors that will accelerate scholarly learning, networking, and professional development as strategies to scale high-impact practices, support guided pathways, and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. Trainees are at the heart of this program, and TRIO will provide a seamless experience for trainees across institutions, developing the KUH researchers of tomorrow. This will be accomplished harmoniously with the 3 cores that make up this program: Training Core, Networking Core, and Professional Development Core.
TRIO Leadership
Administrative Core
The Administrative Core will provide the infrastructural support, communication, collaboration, and connectivity between the different institutions and cores, including access to resources such as program coordinators and the organization of virtual and in-person meeting places. This will allow TRIO to create a holistic and fertile training substrate for KUH science and for professional and personal life skills that will help our trainees become leaders and innovators who will transform KUH science and patient care.
Ronald J. Falk, MD, FACP, FASN
Co-Director
Nan and Hugh Cullman Eminent Professor
Chair, Department of Medicine – UNC Chapel Hill
Anthony Atala, MD
Co-Director
Professor, Urology
Director, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine
Thomas Ortel, MD, PhD
Co-Director
Chief, Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine, Duke University; Professor of Medicine; Professor of Pathology; Member of the Duke Cancer Institute
Training Core
TRIO’s Training Core will provide state of the art training for both pre- and post-doctoral trainees to prepare them for cutting-edge, collaborative, innovative and cross-disciplinary research in KUH areas of interest. The objectives of this core are to: (1) provide didactic and hands-on experience in basic/translational and clinical research; (2) develop fundamental skills to lead a research group with appropriate implementation of emerging technologies; (3) connect with regional, national and international peer networks; and (4) provide the programming to expand and sustain diversity within biomedical research and capitalize on the intrinsic strengths of cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional team science within our KUH collaborative.
Susan Hogen, PhD, MPH
Co-Director
Professor of Medicine, UNC Chapel Hill
Graca Almeida-Porada, MD, PhD
Co-Director
Professor, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine
Steven Crowley, MD
Co-Director
Professor of Medicine, Duke University
Member of the Duke Cancer Institute
Professional Development Core
The Professional Development (PD) Core will provide a rich menu of professional growth opportunities that have been individualized into a tailored curriculum for our trainees, and also to create a pipeline of skilled mentors. The PD Core will accomplish this by fostering diverse, interactive, and multidisciplinary professional development programming for KUH scholars across the continuum of their careers.
Prabir Roy-Chaudhury, MD, PhD, FRCP (Edin)
Co-Director
Drs. Ronald & Katherine Falk Eminent Professor in Nephrology, UNC Chapel Hill
Co-Director, UNC Kidney Center
James Yoo, MD, PhD
Co-Director
Professor, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine
Allison Ashley-Koch, PhD
Co-Director
Professor in Medicine, Duke University; Research Professor in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology; Professor in Biostatistics and Bioinformatics
Affiliate of the Center for Child and Family Policy
Member of the Duke Molecular Physiology Institute
Networking Core
TRIO’s Networking Core is designed to build a pipeline of talented, diverse trainees who will contribute to KUH related fields across NC institutions of higher learning. This Core will provide support to this pipeline as part of a dynamic and cohesive cohort along their training pathway towards successful and rewarding careers in research. By connecting programmatic and institutional partners across our institutions, the TRIO Networking Core is maximally poised to reach a broad spectrum of trainees from diverse personal and training backgrounds.
Keisha Gibson, MD, MPH
Co-Director
Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, UNC Chapel Hill
DOM Vice Chair of Diversity and Inclusion
Chief, Pediatric Nephrology Division
Director, Pediatric Nephrology Fellowship Program
Matthew Sparks, MD
Co-Director
Associate Professor of Medicine, Duke University