Interdisciplinary Training Program in Hearing Research

描述（由申请人提供）：在理解听力机制和听力缺陷治疗方面取得进展，需要听力研究领域内多个学科的综合努力。加州大学欧文分校（UCI）听力研究中心（CHR）将建立一个跨学科培训项目，该项目将利用UCI听力研究的广度和深度，培养广泛跨多个学科的新科学家，并深入研究一个学科。CHR的18名培训教师横跨5所学院（生物科学、工程、医学、物理科学和社会科学）的9个系，研究兴趣涵盖广泛的水平（基因、分子、细胞、系统、行为）和实验方法（细胞和分子生物学、神经生理学、心理声学、计算、人体成像）。因此，CHR在提供跨学科培训方面处于有利地位。我们申请4名博士生和4名博士后研究人员，包括耳鼻喉科和神经病学的住院医生。培训计划的教学核心是听觉神经科学课程，涵盖了从细胞到心理声学，耳蜗到皮层的听觉系统，以及基础和临床方面。鼓励跨学科互动的培训计划的强制性特征是参加CHR活动（CHR的任务是促进跨学科研究），要求学习自己以外的学科，以及基础和临床科学家之间的定期会议。一般支持期为博士前、博士后2年（住院医师1年）。博士预科生通常在研究生学习的第二年进入该项目，并要求参加拨款写作课程，并提交NRSA提案以成功完成该项目。该项目由项目主任和执行委员会管理，旨在培养学员在跨学科听力研究领域取得成功所需的智力、技术和专业技能。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Progress towards understanding mechanisms of hearing, and the treatment of hearing deficits, requires an integrated effort from multiple disciplines within the field of hearing research. The Center for Hearing Research (CHR) at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) will mount an interdisciplinary training program that will take advantage of the breadth and depth of hearing research at UCI to train new scientists broadly across multiple disciplines, as well as deeply in one. The 18 training faculty in CHR span nine departments in five Schools (Biological Sciences, Engineering, Medicine, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences) with research interests that cover a broad range of levels (genes, molecules, cells, systems, behavior) and experimental approaches (cellular and molecular biology, neurophysiology, psychoacoustics, computation, human imaging). Thus, CHR is well-positioned to offer interdisciplinary training. We request support for four predoctoral students and four postdoctoral researchers including medical residents from Otolaryngology and Neurology. The didactic core of the training program is a course in Auditory Neuroscience, which covers the auditory system from cells to psychoacoustics, the cochlea to the cortex, and both basic and clinical aspects. Mandatory features of the training program that encourage interdisciplinary interactions are participation in CHR activities (CHR's mandate is to promote interdisciplinary research), required study of a discipline outside one's own, and regular meetings among basic and clinical scientists. The normal period of support is two years for both pre- and post-doctoral trainees (one year for residents). Predoctoral trainees normally enter the program in their second year of graduate study, and are required to take a course on grant writing and submit an NRSA proposal to successfully complete the program. The program is managed by the Program Director and an Executive Committee, and will foster trainees' intellectual, technical and professional skills needed to pursue successful careers in interdisciplinary hearing research. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: To fully understand how we hear, and design effective treatments for hearing deficits, requires knowledge of multiple disciplines, such as biology, medicine and engineering. This program will train junior scientists to be experts in one discipline and familiar with several, so that they are able to focus the tools and techniques of multiple disciplines on the problems to be solved.