Multidisciplinary fellowship in dementia research

描述(由申请人提供)：痴呆症的研究在过去的二十年里发生了巨大的变化。在痴呆亚型的临床特征、行为神经科学以及我们对导致神经退行性疾病的生化和遗传异常的理解方面都取得了巨大的进步。随着不断的进步，这些不同学科之间的联系将变得越来越紧密。遗传学研究已经在很大程度上依赖于彻底和准确的临床特征。神经退行性疾病的动物模型开始被用于评估潜在的治疗方法。与此同时，生理技术，如功能磁共振成像，现在正在被作为痴呆症诊断和分期的工具进行研究。然而，随着我们在这些学科中每一个学科的知识的扩大，从这些角度研究痴呆症的研究人员将需要将其他研究领域的数据纳入他们实验的设计和解释中。这将需要一名临床医生兼研究人员进入痴呆症研究领域，无论他们的重点是什么，以获得三(3)个关键领域的基本基础：1)与不同痴呆症亚型相关的特定临床特征的知识，2)表征导致神经退化的生化、分子和遗传变化的当前方法，以及3)认知和行为神经科学的最新知识。这项建议描述了一个对这些研究领域感兴趣的临床医生-研究人员的奖学金培训计划。该计划每年将招收两(2)名研究员，并为三(3)年的培训提供支持。第一年将向痴呆症患者以及其他行为和认知问题的患者提供全面的临床接触，并通过定向研究，使研究员熟悉上述三个重点领域的研究问题。未来两(2)年将致力于有指导的研究，重点是痴呆症、行为神经科学或导致神经退化的分子/遗传机制的临床研究。必要时，个性化的课程作业将补充实践训练。目标是培养具有良好研究重点的临床医生-研究人员，他们能够理解其他学科的发现的意义，并将这些发现纳入他们自己的研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Research in dementia has changed dramatically over the last two decades. There have been tremendous advances in clinical characterization of dementia subtypes, in behavioral neuroscience, and in our understanding of the biochemical and genetic abnormalities leading to neurodegenerative diseases. With continued progress, linkages between these different disciplines will become increasingly stronger. Genetic studies already rely heavily on thorough and accurate clinical characterization. Animal models of neurodegenerative diseases are beginning to be used to evaluate potential treatments. At the same time, physiologic techniques, such as fMRI, are now being investigated as tools for diagnosis and staging in dementia. However, as our knowledge in each of these disciplines expands, investigators studying dementia from any of these perspectives will need to incorporate data from the other areas of study into the design and interpretation of their experiments. This will require a clinician-researcher entering the field of dementia research, regardless of their specific focus, to obtain a basic grounding in three (3) key areas: 1) knowledge about the specific clinical features associated with different dementia subtypes, 2) current approaches to characterizing the biochemical, molecular, and genetic alterations that lead to neural degeneration, and 3) state-of-the-art knowledge of cognitive and behavioral neuroscience. This proposal describes a fellowship training program for clinician-researchers interested in any of these areas of study. The program will admit two (2) fellows per year and provide support for three (3) years of training. The first year will provide comprehensive clinical exposure to patients with dementia, as well as other behavioral and cognitive problems and, through directed study, acquaint the fellows with research issues in the three (3) areas of focus described above. The next two (2) years will be devoted to mentored research, with a focus in clinical research in dementia, behavioral neuroscience, or molecular/genetic mechanisms leading to neural degeneration. Individualized coursework will supplement the practical training, as necessary. The goal is to produce clinician-researchers with a well-developed research focus who can understand the significance of findings in other disciplines and incorporate these findings into their own research.