Translational Post-doctoral Training in Neurodevelopment

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Project Summary/Abstract This application, “Translational Postdoctoral Training in Neurodevelopment (TPND)” is a competing renewal to request five additional years of funding in support of our Institutional Training Grant (T32). The TPND Program at Boston Children's Hospital is designed to provide promising postdoctoral investigators (MD, PhD or MD/PhD) with advanced training in essential translational topics ranging from preclinical considerations through implementation of clinical trials for individuals with a range of neurodevelopmental disorders. Large numbers of children, adolescents, and adults are affected by neurodevelopmental disorders that begin early in life, and are rooted in aberrant brain circuitry. Most currently available treatments have had limited impact on the course of neurodevelopmental disorders. Recent advances in genetics, neuroscience, and neuroimaging have led to dramatic gains in our understanding of the pathogenesis of neurodevelopmental disorders. We now have the possibility of developing mechanism-based treatments for many disorders in this field, and thus there is an urgent need for training young investigators who will become the leaders in initiating and executing research at the interface of these advances and ultimately improving the lives of individuals affected with these disorders. TPND leverages the significant strengths of the Translational Neuroscience Center (TNC), the Fuss Center for Neuropsychiatric Disease Research, and the Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School to provide trainees with research experiences ranging from pre-clinical and cognitive neuroscience labs through clinical trial involvement in neurodevelopmental disorders. A key premise of this program is that effective research training in the field of translational neuroscience requires both mentors with expertise in areas across the continuum of translational research with neurodevelopmental disorders and ongoing programs to support the trainees to conduct innovative, high impact translational research. The 17 faculty mentors will involve trainees over a 2-year period (3 new entrants per year) with a range of state of the art methods in translational neurodevelopmental science that reflect core areas of the TNC program including basic science and translational methods as well as application to clinical populations in therapeutic trials for neurodevelopmental disorders. This research experience will be supplemented with both didactic and clinical immersion experiences designed to provide trainees with the skills needed to be successful independent investigators in this critical and emerging field. Ultimately this research experience will have the potential to yield new treatments and insight that in turn will impact the field by reducing the burdens and costs of care and costs to society that is now associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. In addition, the TPND will develop models of interdisciplinary research training for promising young scientists that will have a transformative impact on the field.