Mentoring Neuroscience in Louisiana: A Biomedical Program to Enhance Neuroscience

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our COBRE, "Mentoring Neuroscience in Louisiana: A Biomedical Program to Enhance Neuroscience in an IdeA State," has established a culture of scientific excellence at LSUHSC, Tulane University, and other Louisiana institutions of higher education. Neurosciences research performed in this environment is greatly synergized with respect to both quality and productivity; this new culture is playing a critical role in innovative and fundamentally important research breakthroughs in the neurosciences at our institutions. Recognizing the significance of the mentoring process for developing Promising Junior investigators (PJI) and for strengthening the research infrastructure, we now propose a mechanism to further invigorate the mentoring process in order to solidify a self-sustaining system that will enhance individual and collective research effectiveness. Through our "culture of mentoring" approach, we propose to (1) involve all participating scientists in the COBRE grant in the development of a comprehensive Louisiana Center for Neuroscience;(2) support four main research projects and five pilot projects by PJIs; (3) continue to support and develop five vital Core facilities; and (4) continue to strengthen the quality of neuroscience research in Louisiana. In the context of our scientific focus - Cellular and Molecular Bases of Synaptic Plasticity, Regulation, and Function - the PJIs' projects are designed to contribute insights into dendritic function, neural information processing, and mechanisms of neuroprotection relevant to epilepsy, ischemia-reperfusion, deafness, and neurodegenerative diseases. Our seven COBRE Core resources - Imaging of Cell Physiology, Molecular Biology, Computational Neurosciences, Lipidomics, Biostastitics, Cell Biology/Tissue Culture and Proteomics- are selected to support this scientific focus. Our COBRE mentoring plan - teams of mentors including junior mentors (successful former PJIs) - aims to produce R01 applications by the PJIs within the second year of the award, and is coupled with a recruitment plan to attract new research faculty at the participating institutions over Years 3 to 5. Our 'grantsmanship-plan' is designed to guide the PJIs to become competitive in the application and peer-review process. We view the four target faculty, the four to-be-recruited faculty, and additional PJIs as the critical building blocks to reinforce and energize a strong neuroscience research environment throughout the State of Louisiana.