The overall goal of this training grant is to develop future leaders in the field of neuroendocrinology. There are two components to this effort. The first is to provide training to students enrolled in the Neuroscience Graduate Program, a degree-granting program administered through the Vollum Institute. Half of the 22 mentors listed in this proposal are members of the Vollum faculty;the others are members of the clinical and basic science departments at OHSU, including Pediatrics, Medicine, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Physiology and Pharmacology, and the Oregon National Primate Research Center. Support is requested for six predoctoral students per year. The second component is to support the training of four postdoctoral fellows each year, most of whom will be PhD's, although research- oriented MD's will also be considered. Graduate students will receive one or two years of support and are expected to complete the requirements for obtaining a PhD degree within five to six years. Most graduate students go on to further training by doing a postdoctoral fellowship in an academic institution. Postdoctoral fellows are similarly supported for one to two years and most also pursue academic careers. In addition to an extremely high concentration of neuroscience researchers, students and postdoctoral fellows are exposed to a wide range of neuroendocrine topics through journal clubs, seminars, trainee research presentations, and other didactic sessions. Research areas of the mentors include studies of central mechanisms of feeding behavior and weight regulation, cellular signaling, hormone action, neurotransmitter receptors and transporters, neuroendocrine aspects of diabetes, hypothalamic development, and reproduction.
The Multidisciplinary Training Program in Neuroendocrinology is designed to support the academic training of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in neuroendocrinology research. Advances in this field are critical for new approaches to such diseases as obesity and diabetes and will require a new generation of investigators well-trained in basic neurobiology, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and cell signaling. This training grant has a long record of producing such investigators.
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