Neuroscience Training Program

描述（由申请人提供）：这是一份更新申请，要求支持在爱荷华大学进行基础广泛的神经科学博士前（论文前）培训。该提案建立在二十年来培养神经科学博士生的成功基础上，以及最近在这项培训补助金的支持下成功录取和培养一流学生的基础上。神经科学研究生课程强调高度跨学科的方向，并由联合赞助的NIH博士前神经科学任务指导，以促进神经系统疾病的诊断，治疗和预防工作，以及为此目的的基础科学。该计划借鉴了在基础和临床部门担任主要职务的科学家之间密切互动的悠久传统，以及他们在基础和临床研究之间的相互作用中正式和以身作则地指导学生。培训学院有58名外部资助的神经科学家，他们的研究兴趣涵盖神经科学的各个领域：离子通道的生物物理和药理学特性；突触蛋白和信号分子

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a renewal application requesting support for broad-based, fundamental, predoctoral (pre-thesis) training in neuroscience at the University of Iowa. The proposal builds on two decades of success in training Ph.D. students in neuroscience, and on recent successes in matriculating and training first-rate students with support from this Training Grant. The Neuroscience Graduate Program emphasizes a highly interdisciplinary orientation, and is guided by the jointly sponsored NIH predoctoral neuroscience mission to foster work toward the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of nervous system disorders, and the basic sciences fundamental to this purpose. The Program draws on a long tradition of close interactions among scientists with primary appointments in basic and clinical departments, and their availability to mentor students, formally and by example, in the interplay between basic and clinical research. The Training Faculty has 58 extramurally-funded neuroscientists with research interests that span the gamut of neuroscience: biophysical and pharmacological properties of ion channels; synaptic proteins and signaling molecules in normal, developmental, and pathological states; autonomic regulation; pain mechanisms; neuromuscular diseases; cortical and subcortical organization; neurobiology of depression and schizophrenia; diagnosis and treatment of the dementias; neural correlates and mechanisms of higher functions such as language, memory, and decision-making; and the neurobiology of emotion and consciousness. Coursework and laboratory rotations during the first two years of training guarantee that students become conversant across all levels of neuroscience, and students enjoy ample opportunities for both vertical and horizontal movement within the Program. Part I of the Comprehensive Examination at the end of Year 2 tests explicitly for this broad-based knowledge in a written format; Part II is a focused NRSA-type research proposal that is defended orally to a faculty committee. Thereafter, students focus on dissertation research. Responsible conduct of research is taught and evaluated in all phases of the Program. The Program has enjoyed unprecedented success during the current funding period: a sharp increase in the quantity and quality of applicants; matriculation of students from underrepresented minority groups; a steep rise in the number, quality, and extramural funding of the Training Faculty; decreased time to degree; and placement of graduates in prominent neuroscience related academic positions. To extend these accomplishments, this renewal request asks for 6 stipends to support first and second-year students.