Early Stage Training in the Neurosciences

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DESCRIPTION (Adapted From The Abstract Provided By Applicant): This program will provide broad, early-stage training in the neurosciences to pre-doctoral students at the University of Michigan. It will support 8 Ph.D. students in the interdepartmental Neuroscience Program during their first two years in the program. Once students complete the initial training supported by this grant, they carry out doctoral research in the laboratory of one of 85 different faculty members. About half of the faculty hold primary appointments in basic science departments, and the other half hold primary appointments in clinical departments. Thus, there are opportunities to explore a wide range of possible topics in sensory, integrative, developmental and molecular neuroscience. Many students carry out their thesis research in institutes focused specifically on disorders of the brain or sensory systems (the Mental Health Research Institute, the Kresge Hearing Research Institute, the Kellogg Eye Center and the Michigan Alzheimer's Disease Research Center). Others carry out basic neuroscience research in the departments of Biology, Biological Chemistry, Cell and Developmental Biology, Human Genetics, Physiology, Pharmacology and Psychology. Among areas of particular expertise at the University of Michigan that are represented in these departments are cognitive neuroscience, axonal guidance and neuronal differentiation, synaptic function, movement disorders, neuronal signaling by kinases and phosphatases, and the neurobiology of drugs of abuse. The first two years of this program are designed to make sure that all graduates of the program are broadly trained. In the first year, students take an interdisciplinary, year-long course in the Principles of Neuroscience, two intensive laboratory courses, a course focused on the responsible conduct of research and carry out research rotations in at least two different laboratories. During the second year students take elective neuroscience courses, participate in an intensive neuroscience seminar course, complete their lab rotations and begin the initial work on the doctoral thesis.