Sensory Mechanisms and Disorders

描述（申请人提供）：本培训项目面向博士生、博士后和本科生，提供听力、平衡和化学感官（HBCS）的跨学科教育和研究经验。博士前培训是在与28个培训学院相关联的15个学术部门和学位授予研究生课程中的一个进行的。博士论文研究和博士后研究培训主要在导师的实验室进行。我们的附属教师在每个相应学科提供优秀的培训：生物工程，细胞和分子生物学，遗传学，分子和神经生理学，发育生物学和感觉处理的生物心理学。HBCS项目将听觉、前庭和化学感觉研究的研究人员与来自这些学科的学员结合起来，从而为听力、平衡、味觉和嗅觉的机制和障碍提供创新的培训机会。跨学科整合是通过以下培训计划实现的：a)感官系统的入门和高级课程；b)与密歇根大学内外专家举行听力、平衡和化学感官研讨会；C)学生和教师研讨会、期刊俱乐部和研究论坛；d)接触耳鼻喉科的临床研究问题和密歇根大学医学院可用的临床/转化资源，d)研究标准和道德方面的培训。申请培养5名博士预科生和4名博士后。博士预科生将从培训学院附属院系和项目中最优秀的研究生中选拔。对感觉系统研究的兴趣和动机将是一个重要的标准。博士后培训生必须具有博士学位，如博士或医学博士，并对感官生物学有强烈的承诺。还要求支持招募听力受损的个人参与生物医学研究。聋人在科学和医疗行业的代表性明显不足。我们的科学指导计划（SMP）的目标是为这些代表性不足的个人提供直接接触感官科学主流研究的机会，以便更好地为他们进入研究生和专业学校做好准备。我们建议继续实施自1990年开始的聋哑本科生暑期研究实习计划，每年培训5名聋哑本科生。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This training program for predoctoral, postdoctoral, and undergraduate trainees provides an interdisciplinary education and research experience in hearing, balance and chemical senses (HBCS). Predoctoral training is based in one of the 15 academic departments and degree-granting graduate programs with which the 28 training faculty are associated. Doctoral thesis research and postdoctoral research training reside primarily within the laboratories of the mentors. Our affiliated faculty provides outstanding training in each of their corresponding disciplines: bioengineering, cellular and molecular biology, genetics, molecular and neurophysiology, developmental biology, and biopsychology of sensory processing. The HBCS program integrates investigators in auditory, vestibular and chemosensory research with trainees from across these disciplines and thereby fosters innovative training opportunities into mechanisms and disorders of hearing, balance, taste and smell. Cross-disciplinary integration is made possible by the training program through: a) introductory and advanced courses in sensory systems; b) seminars in hearing, balance and chemical senses with experts from within and outside the University of Michigan; c) student and faculty seminars, journal clubs and research forums; d) exposure to clinical research issues in Otolaryngology and clinical/translational resources available at the University of Michigan Medical School, and d) training in research standards and ethics. Support for 5 predoctoral and 4 postdoctoral trainees is requested. Predoctoral trainees will be selected from the most highly qualified graduate students in the training faculty's affiliated departments and programs. Interest and motivation for research in sensory systems will be an important criterion. Postdoctoral trainees must have a doctoral degree such as a Ph.D. or M.D. and a strong commitment to sensory biology. Support is also requested to recruit hearing impaired individuals into biomedical research. The deaf are clearly underrepresented in scientific and medical professions. The goal of our Science Mentorship Program (SMP) is to provide these under-represented individuals with direct exposure to mainstream research in the sensory sciences in order to better prepare them for entry into graduate and professional schools. We propose to continue the SMP, begun in 1990, by training 5 deaf undergraduate students per year in summer research internships. RELEVANCE: Our primary goal for this training program is to attract promising scientists to the research fields of hearing, balance, taste and smell and to provide them with the mentoring and training that will result in their pursuit of productive research careers in these areas. A better understanding of these areas of sensory neuroscience will provide important insight into many human sensory disorders that greatly affect quality of life.