Throughout its history, the Department of Neurology at Mount Sinai has excelled in training academic neurologists, and is historically #3 by total number and #1 by percentage of trainees among US programs in generating academic neurologists (Arch Neurol. 2011;68(8):999-1004). Over the past decade, the Department has directed itself towards facilitating and improving the training of outstanding neurologist-researchers. Our R25 research residency, first established in 2012, is a burgeoning element for the development of future neurologist-scientists. The present application to renew the NINDS- supported research- resident training program is a cornerstone of an effort that involves all aspects of the department and all stages of career development. Over six years we have recruited sixty new faculty members, including many neurologist-scientists, redesigned the preclinical neuroscience course, developed a 12 week neurology/psychiatry/neuroradiology/neurosurgery/research third year clerkship, increased the size of our residency from 18 to 24 residents, designed a new neuroscience-at-noon neurology residents program taught by faculty from half a dozen departments, established formal residency research and junior faculty mentoring programs, received approval for four new fellowship programs and recruited outstanding academic and research-oriented resident cohorts, two of whom are currently in the program. The PI, Dr. Sealfon, has been continuously funded by NIH for 28 years, has previously directed a T32 program and is wholeheartedly committed to the training of neurologist- scientists. As is typical of our collegial and dynamic institution, our experienced research training faculty is selected from several departments in addition to Neurology. The training program will provide a formal closely-mentored clinical or basic research experience during residency and fellowship to develop the skills, data and publications to submit a career development award and to succeed in a research- intensive department like ours. Success of the program will be judged by the trainees rate of obtaining K08 and K23 awards, their academic placement and their researchcontributions.
Neurological disorders, which include dementia, stroke, Parkinsons disease, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, infection, headache and neurodegenerative diseases, cause a significant burden of morbidity and mortality. The rate of translation of the advances in knowledge occurring in neuroscience into improved treatments for these diseases will accelerate with improved training and success of neurologist-scientists. This program will provide outstanding neurology residents with the skills needed to succeed in an academic research career and to help change improve the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disease.
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