Basic Science Training Program in the Neurobiology of Mental Illness

描述(由申请者提供)：德克萨斯大学西南分校精神疾病神经生物学(NMI)的基础科学培训项目旨在为博士后、博士后和短期暑期研究员提供与精神疾病直接相关的跨学科、基础疾病研究培训。在德克萨斯大学西南分校申请新的NMI培训计划是对NIMH呼吁更多基础科学家接受广泛多样、创新的基础研究的直接回应，这些研究密切地告知我们对精神疾病的理解和治疗。除了全国范围内缺乏探索神经精神疾病的神经生物学的基础科学研究人员外，相反，也缺乏受过临床培训的个人从事精神疾病的基础研究，从而减少了这一领域迫切需要的相互干扰。精神障碍的复杂性要求采用跨学科的方法来阐明潜在的疾病机制，并开发更好的诊断措施、治疗方法和最终治愈方法。我们的NMI培训计划有许多优势，包括：a)德克萨斯大学西南大学进行基础、跨学科生物医学研究的出色环境；b)德克萨斯大学西南神经科学界的智力强度和紧密联系的性质；c)整合多个学术部门进行的基础神经生物学研究；d)德克萨斯大学西南大学探索抑郁症、精神分裂症和自闭症的根本基础；e)先前存在的基础科学与精神疾病临床项目的整合；f)我们潜在受训人员的广度和深度；G)计算初级和高级导师之间的互动，从而确保初级导师也将从培训计划中受益，并在未来几年继续从事心理健康研究；以及h)以翻译为导向的新颖培训组成部分，如动手操作的神经生理学和人类神经解剖学实验室，新的临床相关性研讨会，以及在每个受训者的博士论文委员会中有一名临床医生。NMI培训计划旨在鼓励最优秀的受训基础科学家将他们的注意力转向精神疾病的研究，目的是开发治疗抑郁症、精神分裂症、自闭症和发育障碍以及其他严重、常见精神疾病的新疗法。精神病学系正在进行的心理健康研究已经激励了德克萨斯大学西南分校的许多研究人员进行心理健康研究。这项培训计划的目标是吸引和激励更多的年轻科学家从事心理健康研究，考虑到德克萨斯大学西南分校提供的研究人员、环境和受训人员的真正特殊和翻译性质，这一目标是合理和可行的。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This Basic Science Training Program in the Neurobiology of Mental Illness (NMI) at UT Southwestern is designed to provide interdisciplinary, basic disease-oriented research training directly relevant to mental illness to predoctoral, postdoctoral and short-term summer fellows. This application for a new NMI Training Program at UT Southwestern is a direct response to NIMH's call for more basic scientists trained in a broad range of diverse, innovative basic research that closely informs our understanding and treatment of mental illness. In addition to the paucity of basic science researchers nationwide exploring the neurobiology of neuropsychiatric diseases, there is, conversely, a dearth of clinically-trained individuals pursuing basic research in mental illness, thus diminishing the very cross talk that is urgently needed in this field. The complexity of mental disorders demands an interdisciplinary approach to illuminate underlying disease mechanisms and to develop better diagnostic measures, treatments, and ultimately cures. Our NMI training program has numerous strengths, including: a) the outstanding environment at UT Southwestern in which to conduct basic, interdisciplinary biomedical research; b) the intellectual intensity and close-knit nature of the UT Southwestern neuroscience community; c) the integration of fundamental neurobiological research performed in multiple academic divisions; d) the unusually strong foundation at UT Southwestern to explore fundamental underpinnings of depression, schizophrenia and autism; e) the preexisting integration of basic science with clinical programs in mental illness; f) the breadth and depth of our potential trainees; g) calculated interactions between junior and senior mentors, thus ensuring that junior mentors will also benefit from the Training Program and will remain in mental health research in future years; and h) novel, translationally-oriented training components, such as hands-on neurophysiology and human neuroanatomy laboratories, a new Clinical Correlations Seminar, and the presence of a clinician on each trainee's doctoral thesis committee. The NMI Training Program is designed to encourage the best basic scientists-in-training to turn their attention to studying mental illness, with a purposeful endpoint being the development of new treatments for depression, schizophrenia, autism and developmental disorders, and other severe, common mental illnesses. The mental health research that is ongoing in the Department of Psychiatry has already inspired many UT Southwestern researchers to pursue mental health research. This Training Plan's goal of attracting and inspiring additional young scientists to pursue mental health research is both warranted and feasible given the truly exceptional and translational nature of the researchers, environment, and trainees offered by UT Southwestern.