Neurobiology of Disease Training Program

The Need for an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Training Program

Although the Decade-of-the-Brain initiative concluded nearly 10 years ago, the importance of neuroscience research has continued to increase in the context of major public health issues. The number and increasing longevity of retiring Baby Boomers will severely tax our health care system and bring with it unprecedented numbers of patients with neurodegenerative and cognitive disabilities over the next 20-30 years. Furthermore, the World Health Organization projects alarming increases in diseases of alcohol abuse, unipolar depressive disorders and cerebrovascular disease. The public health burden will not be limited to adults; major childhood diseases like autism spectrum disorder have increased dramatically in the last 10 years from 1 in 150 to 1 in 100 children between the ages of 3 and 17, which will further add to the public health challenge.

Such impending challenges bring with them substantial opportunities for understanding and overcoming neurological disorders as long as there are a sufficient number of suitably trained neuroscientists and clinician/neuroscientists to take advantage of these opportunities. Toward this end, we have developed an integrated, multidisciplinary translational neuroscience program to train PhD students at the emerging interfaces of systems, genomics, imaging, medicinal and clinical neurosciences. Our participating faculty bring to the table broad scientific disciplines from basic science to clinical practice, all with common threads of previous graduate training, vigorous research programs in current NIH funded programs, and a focus on the elucidation and treatment of neurological disorders. Training Program Faculty biographies are listed here.

The students currenty enrolled in the program are Kathleen Maheras,Rick Smith and Dan Radecki.