Developmental Psychobiology and Neurobiology Training Grant

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal requests continued support of a highly successful interdisciplinary training grant in Developmental Psychobiology and Neurobiology under the auspices of the MENTOR award program. Pre-doctoral and postdoctoral trainees are prepared for research and teaching careers. Former trainees have an excellent track record in obtaining academic or in some cases industry positions. Broad and deep knowledge of research literature and methodological sophistication are emphasized in the training program, in which students are enrolled in the Neuroscience or Biological Psychology Ph.D. programs at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A faculty committee guides the training of each pre-doctoral and postdoctoral trainee, developing an individualized training program appropriate to the trainee's current state of preparation and future goals. To build skills in oral communication, each trainee will present at least one seminar each year describing her/his research and activities to a seminar group that includes other trainees and their advisors and members of the trainee's committee. All faculty in the training program are members of the Neuroscience Program. Two of the primary faculty, including the PI/PD, are members of the National Academy of Sciences, and many others have received fellow status or other indications of accomplishment within their professional organizations. The PD is very well known in the field of neural development and plasticity and provides "translational" experience through his work on fragile X syndrome. Several other faculty are similarly developing translational lines of research. Instruction in the Responsible Conduct of Science includes both enrollment in a graduate course, MCB 580 - "Research Ethics and Responsibilities" and individual training by the faculty mentor. Substantial efforts have allowed us to attract outstanding minority trainees, and a number of former minority trainees have successfully obtained faculty positions at major universities.