This training grant has been in progress for the past 22 years in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. We are requesting 5 years of support for a total of eight postdoctoral trainees, including one position per year identified specifically for research training for a child psychiatrist. During the past 22 years, we have graduated 73 young scientists from this research training program, 23 of whom are M.D.'s, and 54 (74 percent} of whom are still actively involved in research and/or academic careers. Trainee candidates are M.D.'s or Ph.D.'s, including physicians trained in psychiatry, child psychiatry or pediatrics, and Ph.D.'s trained in psychology, anthropology, molecular biology, neurobiology, or genetics. Special efforts to recruit under-represented minorities have been successful, with six minority trainees recruited during the past five years. Our faculty consists of 22 scientists, and the program has been characterized since its inception by multidisciplinary research with a focus on translation of basic science to clinical care. A core curriculum includes bi-weekly Developmental Psychobiology Research Group (DPRG) seminars, an ethics seminar series, biennial DPRG retreats, a career development retreat, a grant-writing seminar, and, for physician trainees, statistics. An elective curriculum is also available. Research training opportunities include training in cognitive, emotional, and perceptual development in normal and high-risk infants and children, biochemical and pharmacological studies of brain maturation, neuropsychological and genetic studies of dyslexia, studies of developmental disability in autism, Down's Syndrome and Fragile X syndrome, early affective regulation of chronically ill pediatric patients, molecular biology of schizophrenia, behavioral immunology in humans and animal models, animal models of mental illness, and magnetoencephalographic (MEG) and electroencephalographic (EEG) correlates of psychoses. Faculty provide access to under-represented minority subjects and special clinical populations, including developmentally disabled, autistic and psychotic children, infant and adolescent populations, children with other psychiatric disorders, research diagnosed psychotic patients, children and family members of schizophrenic subjects, and learning disordered populations. The training program is normally 2 years in duration. Trainees completing this program will be able to assume the role of an independent investigator in one of the multiple areas encompassed by the training program.
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