The Keck Center of the Gulf Coast Consortia
Brief description
The training arm of the Gulf Coast Consortia (GCC), the Keck Center currently supports more than 50 trainees through competitive grants from federal and state agencies, and has more than 600 affiliated faculty. Within the Keck Center, the emphasis is on continuing its 35-year successful tradition of fostering interdisciplinary and multi-institutional training. The Keck Center provides a unique intellectual and physical setting in which to train the next generation of scientists with expertise in multiple disciplines, scientists who will be able to reach across boundaries to advance insight and understanding. The Keck Executive Committee, with representatives from all eight GCC member institutions, formulates and delivers training policy through didactic courses, seminars, workshops, retreats, selection of trainees, and advisement of Keck Fellows and mentors, while leaving individual program directors the latitude to tailor the implementation of these to the unique needs of their training program.
Detailed description
The Keck Center, the training arm of the Gulf Coast Consortia, offers world-class opportunities for training, mentorship, and interaction with faculty leaders and others engaged in interdisciplinary bioscience research. The Keck Center brings together computational, biological, physical, mathematical, and engineering scientists in a stimulating and nurturing environment for the development and training of a new type of scientist—one who can incorporate theory, simulation, and experimentation to expand our understanding of modern biological problems. Pre- and postdoctoral trainees are provided an intellectual environment for considering problems that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries, as well as training opportunities with mentors in different disciplines.
The Keck Executive Committee formulates training policy in terms of didactic courses, seminars, workshops, retreats, selection of trainees, and advisement of Keck Fellows and mentors, while leaving individual program directors the latitude to tailor the implementation of these to the unique needs of their training program. These programs include those in Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR-TPT); Biomedical Informatics and Data Science (NLM); Cancer Therapeutics (CTTP); Houston Area Molecular Biophysics (HAMBP); Training Interdisciplinary Pharmacology Scientists (TIPS); Molecular Basis of Infectious Diseases (MBID); Precision Environmental Health Sciences (TPEHS); and evidence-based Research Mentor Training workshops for faculty and postdoctoral fellows. In addition, since 1990, the Center has hosted the Keck Seminar Series, which focuses on contemporary interdisciplinary science involving quantitative or computational, biomedical informatics and data science, bioinformatics, chemical, and/or physical approaches to biological and biomedical problems.
Website: https://www.gulfcoastconsortia.org/home/training/
Source: Melissa Glueck, Director, Keck Center
Last updated: December 2025