Neuroscience Advanced Predoctoral Institutional Training Grant

描述(由申请人提供)：这个神经科学博士前培训项目的中心目标是继续为准备完成论文研究的博士前学生提供个性化的、高质量的培训，使他们在研究生的中后期学习。我们在所有级别提供广泛的、多学科的培训，在核心概念、技能、方法和对科学文献的高级理解方面具有坚实的基础。我们新修订的核心课程指导学生在基因、细胞、系统、认知、翻译神经科学和神经系统疾病方面的水平。我们营造了一个不受传统学科界限限制的环境，鼓励研究生在这些学科的交界处工作。在教学的所有阶段，我们整合被认为对神经科学领域成功的、独立的研究事业至关重要的技能。这些包括批判性思维和推理，有效的科学写作和口头陈述，科学审查过程的知识，以及伦理培训。在这个项目中，我们将扩大最近的计划，以确保研究生接触到神经科学中的临床和疾病概念。这些措施包括将布朗大学临床医生的研讨会纳入我们的核心课程，参加布朗附属医院神经学、神经病理学和精神病学的Grand Runds课程；以及在第三年强制参加新研究生的疾病神经生物学课程。我们的大多数博士前学员继续从事神经系统的基础科学研究，无论是在学术界还是在生物技术行业。我们预计，在他们接受培训的早期接触临床问题将对他们的研究生涯产生积极影响。布朗大学神经科学研究生项目的主要特点包括：卓越的研究以及卓越的教育和指导；跨学科和转化性研究的历史，特别是在计算神经科学方面；以及一个小型但高效的实验室环境，研究生在研究过程中平等合作。拟议的培训计划有29名教师参与，他们来自布朗大学的六个不同系，目标是大约50名博士前实习生。教员培训师是一群杰出的、精力充沛的脑科学家，他们共同涵盖了从基因到认知的现代神经科学研究的范围。我们已经建立了鼓励和促进计算和翻译神经科学研究的结构，这些研究驻留在包括工程学、应用数学和神经科学在内的学科之间。我们的培训涵盖了我们认为对神经科学事业的成功至关重要的最先进的方法论的全部范围。这些领域包括非侵入性功能核磁共振、机器人和神经假体的应用、先进的电生理记录、小鼠转基因、行为研究、神经基因的分子操作和功能蛋白质组学。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The central objective of this pre-doctoral training program in Neuroscience is to continue providing individualized, high quality training to pre-doctoral students in their middle-to-late years of graduate studies as they prepare to finish their dissertation research. We provide broad, multi-disciplinary training at all levels with a strong foundation in core concepts, skills, methodologies, and advanced comprehension of the scientific literature. Our newly revised core curriculum instructs students at the level of genes, cells, systems, cognition, translational neuroscience, and diseases of the nervous system. We foster an environment unconstrained by traditional discipline boundaries and where graduate students are encouraged to work at the interfaces of these disciplines. At all stages of instruction, we integrate skills considered essential for successful, independent research careers in neuroscience. These include critical thinking and reasoning, effective science writing and oral presentation, knowledge of scientific review processes, and training in ethics. For this program, we will expand recent initiatives to ensure that graduate students have exposure to clinical and disease concepts in neuroscience. These include incorporating seminars from clinicians at Brown into our core curriculum, attendance at Grand Rounds in Neurology, Neuropathology, and Psychiatry at Brown-affiliated Hospital; and compulsory attendance in Year 3 of a new graduate-student only Neurobiology of Disease Course. The majority of our pre-doctoral trainees continue in basic scientific investigations of the nervous system either in academia or in the biotechnology industry. We expect that exposure to clinical issues early in their training will positively influence their research careers. Key features of the Neuroscience Graduate Program at Brown include: Excellence in research along with excellence in education and mentorship; a history of interdisciplinary and translational research particularly in computational neuroscience; and an environment of small but highly productive laboratories where graduate students are equal partners in the research process. The proposed training program has 29 participating faculty, drawn from six different Brown University departments and a target of about 50 pre-doctoral trainees. The faculty trainers are a distinguished and energetic group of brain scientists that collectively cover the spectrum of modern neuroscience research from genes to cognition. We have structures in place that encourage and facilitate research in computational and translational neuroscience that reside at the interface of disciplines including engineering, applied mathematics and neuroscience. Our training covers the full-spectrum of state-of-the art methodologies that we consider essential for a successful career in the neurosciences. These include non-invasive functional MRI, applications of robotics and neuroprosthetics, advanced electrophysiological recordings, mouse transgenics, behavioral studies, molecular manipulations of neuronal genes and functional proteomics