Quantitative Neurobiology at the University of Texas at San Antonio

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We propose a SNRP at the University of Texas at San Antonio. UTSA is a young institution with a commitment to rapid growth in graduate training and research in Neuroscience, and an emphasis on quantitative and computational research. In the past 3 years the Department of Biology at UTSA has hired 6 promising young tenure-track neurobiology faculty from among the best labs in the country to represent a cross-section of neuroscience disciplines and advance Neuroscience within our institution. Most of these new scientists are assistant professors, who have never previously held faculty positions. In the upcoming 5 years we are committed to hiring 5 additional tenure-track Neuroscientists with research interests in topics fundamental to the understanding of nervous system function and disorders, including neural control of movement, central pattern generation, structural plasticity in the adult nervous system, ion channel structure and function, and behavioral genetics. During this time of rapid growth of our Neuroscience group, we envision the SNRP functioning as the center of the Neuroscience community at UTSA. The program will develop a community of UTSA researchers and their collaborators at other institutions. It will support a shared research infrastructure tailored to Neurobiology research by providing resources and expertise in the design, collection and quantitative analysis of numerical and image data. We will offer training and leadership to foster the development of our promising new faculty. We will provide critical evaluation, advice and support for their collaborative pilot research, by providing guidance and direct help in the administrative and management issues that arise in establishing their new laboratories. The SNRP leadership will also act as an advocate for their interests at the college and university levels as they establish their independent research programs and develop into productive managers, scientists and scholars. A second focus of the SNRP will be to provide training opportunities that supplement the Neurobiology Ph.D program, including seminars, symposia, and year-long competitive training fellowships for students interested in pursuing advanced mathematical or statistical studies while in our program.