NERVOUS SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AND INJURY

描述（由申请人提供）

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant) The present application seeks continued funding for two training programs at Washington University, one that has been jointly administered by the Departments of Neurology and Neurological Surgery for the past 19 years, and another that has been administered by the Division of Pediatric Neurology for the past eight years. The latter, the Neurological Sciences Academic Development Award, cannot be renewed. We seek to provide a program of extended research training for selected trainees in Neurology, Neurosurgery, or Pediatric Neurology, preparing for academic careers. To take advantage of progress in translational neuroscience research over the last few years, we have increased the emphasis of our training program on patient-oriented research. We thus intend to augment our historical emphasis on bench research by offering our trainees the opportunity to gain a rigorous education in clinical research methodology. We believe that the next advances in clinical neurology and neurosurgery will be brought into practice by investigators who combine clinical expertise with formal education in this methodology. Trainees participating in our training program will be expected to devote at least two years of near full-time effort beyond residency training to the task. This is likely the minimum period necessary to develop the scientifically-trained neurological or neurosurgical clinicians who will be essential for elucidating the pathogenesis of nervous system diseases, and bringing new therapies to patients. Despite accelerating neuroscience research advances, there is presently a serious shortage of neurological or neurosurgical physician-scientists or clinical researchers capable of performing these essential translational functions. Indeed, the American Neurological Association currently lists over 150 open positions in academic neurology alone. Exploiting current strengths, both within the training units themselves (Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Pediatric Neurology), and within the larger neuroscience community at Washington University, the proposed program will continue to focus on two major themes: Nervous System Injury, and Nervous System Development. These twin themes are active fronts in disease-related neuroscience today, relevant to understanding the pathogenesis of many different neurological diseases. These themes are complementary, as well as partially overlapping. Insights gained into the nature of the developing nervous system are highly likely to be relevant to understanding nervous system responses to injury.