The Institute of Neurobiology is a research and teaching component of the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, a minority institution. Its eleven faculty members are engaged in basic research in the neurosciences, and in training students to do so. The present application is to apply for the funds to continue and extend the highly successful program that was begun almost thirteen years ago. Funding under M-RISP has made it possible to provide badly needed administrative support, thus freeing investigators from some of these duties. It is further affording opportunities for selected faculty members to develop themselves as fully competitive members of the world scientific community, as well as role models for their minority students. The objectives of this application are: 1) to provide institutional research development support to enhance the infrastructure that will facilitate development of basic mental health research projects based on molecular, cellular and integrative studies of the nervous system, and to offer advanced training and experience for faculty members and students by supporting workshops and exchange visits between the Institute faculty and experts from other institutions. 2) to provide support for four individual investigator research projects which are basic to the Institute's goal of developing a critical mass of active investigators conducting research in neuroscience. This will enable not only the development of these research areas, but also the training of minority research assistants at the graduate and undergraduate levels; 3) to give an opportunity to minority undergraduate and graduate research assistants to become involved in mental health related research.
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