? ? The neuroscience graduate program at the University of Iowa currently lacks a course that links neurobiological disease mechanisms to clinical features while also emphasizing areas of current and future investigation. The RFA for """"""""Course Development in the Neurobiology of Disease"""""""" provides us at Iowa with an opportunity to address this much-needed component of neuroscience training. The timing is ideal for the development of such a course at Iowa; the neuroscience faculty, and departmental and college administrators all support this endeavor, and neuroscience is a key growth area at Iowa. The two neuroscientists directing the development and implementation of this course, Drs. Paulson and Tranel, bring to the project an ideal, complementary blend of clinical and scientific expertise. The primary objective is to create a Neurobiology of Disease course that provides training neuroscientists with a broad, thematic understanding of disease mechanisms in nervous system disorders. With the aid of an Advisory Committee, the faculty team will develop a one-semester course that educates students in fundamental features of neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases and prepares them for future research directions. The course will be arranged thematically into five major neuroscience disease groups and will be integrated into the required core curriculum for neuroscience graduate students. More than 35 neuroscience faculty at Iowa, experts in a wide range of diseases, have expressed a strong interest in participating in this course. ? ?
