Center for Research Excellence Psychiatric Neuroscience

描述(由申请人提供)：精神病学神经科学是一个令人兴奋的和新兴的领域，有助于最近关于神经生物学和行为之间的关系的许多重大发现。未来十年对这项研究的进一步承诺有望在抑郁症、精神分裂症和药物滥用障碍等精神疾病的诊断和治疗方面取得重大进展。密西西比大学医学中心(UMMC)在过去的8年里通过招募一些从事精神神经科学研究的著名科学家和临床医生，对这一医学领域做出了重大承诺。UMMC建议在现有实力的基础上建立精神神经科学卓越研究中心(CREPN)。CREPN将创造和维持一个高质量的研究环境，非常有利于精神病学神经科学中富有成效和面向临床的基础研究。CREPN的一个主要目标将是通过尖端精神神经科学研究的多学科计划，培养初级教员神经科学家向独立研究人员的过渡。CREPN将培养一个多样化的、具有全国竞争力的环境，这将促进初级教师的研究生涯，并将促进密西西比大学和密西西比州大学精神病学神经科学家之间的合作。这些目标将通过在初级精神病学神经学家和在NIH资助的精神病学神经科学研究方面有既定记录的资深教员之间建立正式的指导关系来实现。CREPN将通过提供最先进的核心设施，包括行为研究的核心设施、细胞神经成像设施、基于网络的互动精神神经科学资源和一系列具有精神病学特征的尸检大脑，提高初级调查人员的方法复杂性。此外，中心还将招募一名主要利用分子生物学方法进行精神神经科学研究的神经科学家。总体而言，CREPN的建立将丰富和多样化密西西比州精神病神经科学初级研究人员的学术环境，从而通过传统的授予机制提高他们在全国范围内竞争的能力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Psychiatric neuroscience is an exciting and burgeoning field that has contributed to many recent major discoveries regarding the relationship between neurobiology and behavior. An enhanced commitment to this research in the next decade holds the promise of major advances in the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric illnesses such as depression, schizophrenia, and substance abuse disorders. The University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) has made a major commitment to this field of medicine over the past 8 years by the recruitment of a number of prominent scientists and clinicians engaged in psychiatric neuroscience research. UMMC proposes to build on this existing strength by establishing the Center for Research Excellence in Psychiatric Neuroscience (CREPN). The CREPN will create and maintain a quality research environment highly conducive to productive and clinically-oriented basic research in the psychiatric neurosciences. A major goal of CREPN will be to nurture the transition of junior faculty neuroscientists to independent researchers through a multi-disciplinary program of cutting-edge psychiatric neuroscience research. The CREPN will foster a diverse and nationally competitive environment that will facilitate research careers of junior faculty and will foster collaborations between psychiatric neuroscientists at UMMC and throughout Mississippi. These goals will be achieved by establishing formal mentoring relationships between junior psychiatric neuroscientists and senior faculty with established records in NIH-funded psychiatric neuroscience research. The CREPN will enhance the methodological sophistication of junior investigators by providing access to state-of-the-art core facilities including a core facility for behavioral studies, a cellular neuroimaging facility, an interactive web-based psychiatric neuroscience resource, and a collection of psychiatrically-characterized post-mortem brains. In addition, a neuroscientist that utilizes predominantly molecular biological approaches to psychiatric neuroscience research will be recruited to the Center. Overall, the establishment of the CREPN will enrich and diversify the academic environment in Mississippi for junior investigators in psychiatric neuroscience and thereby enhance their ability to compete nationally through traditional granting mechanisms.