This proposal requests support for 15 trainees to continue a multidisciplinary Neuroscience Training Program for predoctoral training in neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley. Administered under the auspices of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, the goal of this Ph.D. Training Program is to educate and mentor graduate students in neuroscience, and to train them to become tomorrow's leaders as research scientists and teachers. The 44 participating faculty are drawn from 8 departments or schools across the entire campus and represent neuroscience research from molecules and genes, to cells and circuits, systems and computation, and behavior and cognition. The Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute was created with the vision of training neuroscience graduate students in an interactive environment that builds bridges across traditional academic boundaries to span from genes and molecules to brain and behavior. Since its founding just over 10 years ago, the institute has supported the integration and expansion of neuroscience at UC Berkeley through the recruitment of new neuroscience faculty;the establishment of four technology centers - the Brain Imaging Center, Molecular Imaging Center, Neurogenomics Center, and Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience;and the establishment and growth of the Neuroscience Graduate Program - an interdepartmental Ph.D.-granting program. Together the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute and Neuroscience Graduate Program provide the intellectual center for neuroscience research and education on the UC Berkeley campus. Students are admitted to this NIGMS Training Program mainly through the Neuroscience Graduate Program, as well as through the graduate programs of participating faculty departments. The Training Program emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches to fuel paradigm shifts in how we study the brain, with the ultimate goal of translating basic discoveries into solutions for human neurological diseases. The program provides training across the entire range of neuroscience through required course work and lab rotations that emphasize critical thinking in defined areas as well as breadth in knowledge. Students are also exposed to many facets of neuroscience research through seminar series and lectureships, a journal club, and an annual campus-wide retreat. Students supported by this NIGMS Training Program have outstanding academic credentials, conduct innovative research, and publish widely in the top journals of our field. The vast majority of past trainees supported by this Training Program have gone on to productive careers in academic biomedical research.
This predoctoral Neuroscience Training Program at the University of California, Berkeley strives to educate and train the future leaders in neuroscience research. Modern neuroscience is a broad and complex field encompassing many areas of the biomedical, biological and physical sciences. The proposed Training Program emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches to fuel paradigm shifts in how we study the brain, with the ultimate goal of translating basic discoveries into solutions for human neurological diseases.
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