Renewal of Delaware Center for Neuroscience Research

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Summary The Delaware Center for Neuroscience Research, established in 2012 with a phase I COBRE award, is a collaboration between Delaware State University (DSU) and the University of Delaware (UD) that uniquely brings together faculty and research resources from two very different institutions: a minority-serving, undergraduate university with an emerging strength in neuroscience research (DSU), and the state's flagship research university (UD). Phase I of the COBRE project was focused on supporting the research and professional development of a group of early stage investigators that included Project Leads, Pilot Grant PIs, and new faculty who were hired at DSU with COBRE support, and helping the investigators achieve grant success and scientific maturity. The program has been very successful with over 70 publications by COBRE-supported researchers, three Project Leads “graduated” into R01 support, a pilot investigator graduated to an NSF CAREER award, and two of the new faculty recruited to DSU with COBRE support winning K01 awards. Our phase II project will strengthen both our Center and neuroscience research in Delaware by catalyzing institutional investment in research infrastructure and continuing to grow the number of R01-competitive neuroscience researchers. Supporting our COBRE effort as we move to Phase II, UD has made a significant investment in the research infrastructure for neuroscience with the purchase of a 3T MRI scanner with the capability to map human brain activity, and the establishment of the Center for Biomedical and Brain Imaging. Our phase COBRE II award will catalyze additional investment in the purchase of a 7T, small bore magnet to expand the capabilities of the CBBI to include magnetic resonance imaging of rodent models. The overarching scientific goal of our Neuroscience Center is to bring together and support neuroscientists working at multiple scales, from human subjects to rodent and invertebrate models to improve our understanding of the dynamic function of the brain. During Phase II we will pursue three specific aims for our Center: 1) strengthening the research infrastructure and capacity in Delaware by fully developing the Center for Biomedical and Brain Imaging to include instrumentation and expertise for small animal MRI; 2) to further develop the interdisciplinary, inter-institutional Delaware Center for Neuroscience Research as a supportive scientific community focused on investigating dynamic structure- function relationships in the brain; and 3) to involve a new group of investigators in the Center's integrated mentoring and professional development program that helps junior faculty become independent, externally-funded researchers. Continuing this COBRE program will have two significant long-term benefits. First, we will continue to advance to our Delaware Center of Neuroscience Research to be a self-sustaining, and competitive research center that will advance our understanding of the brain and increase the amount of multidisciplinary biomedical and behavioral research carried out in Delaware. Second, the Center will support a group of early-stage faculty to become R01-funded investigators and advance to senior levels both academically and scientifically.