NEUROGENETICS AND BEHAVIOR CENTER

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Neurogenetics and Behavior Center, supported under this award, would establish a unique resource for NIH supported research programs using gene targeting technology to study basic functions of the brain and disorders relevant to psychiatric and neurological disease. The Center, through its Administrative, Animal Testing Facility, and Data Management functions will provide behavioral assessments in three broad functional domains: sensorimotor, affective processes, and cognition, the latter to include learning, memory, and attention. Phenotypic analysis in these domains will provide an immediate service to 33 investigators/research groups listed in the application, located in Maryland at JHU and the Kennedy Krieger Institute and at other sites (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown University, and the Tennessee Mouse Genome Consortium, among others). In addition to providing a facility for standard behavioral testing and data analysis, investigators in the Center, who are internationally recognized behavioral neuroscientists, will work collaboratively to develop innovative assessments appropriate to the research goals of the users. These collaborations will not only enhance the quality of current investments in research programs funded by the NIH but will make a significant contribution to the field of neurogenetics through dissemination of the Center's activities. The Center will also provide a resource for training young scientists in the wide range of expertise needed to accomplish integrative research with animal models, bridging from genomic, molecular, and cellular levels of analysis to the study of behavioral systems and functional disorders.