This new training grant application requests support for training in fundamental neuroscience at Vanderbilt University, capitalizing on trans-institutional commitments to neuroscience research, faculty recruitment, educational programs and infrastructure. The training plan represents the culmination of years of internationally recognized faculty working together across departments and across schools in collaborative research and teaching endeavors, highlighted by the development of an interdisciplinary neuroscience Ph.D. degree program in 1997. The recent establishment of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute, directed by the principal investigator of the present application, provides a central home for the training program that is strategically located at the junction of the College of Arts and Science and the Medical Center. Programmatic integration across the campus is a major educational mission of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute. Thus, key building blocks for campus-wide, broad-based training in neuroscience are in place and the present application seeks funding for the students in this program. Support is requested for twelve trainees per year for the first two years of graduate training. This jointly sponsored training grant largely replaces funding for the first two years of graduate training now provided by a Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience training grant from NIMH and a Vision Research training grant from NEI. The goal of the present training grant is to provide a solid foundation in fundamental neuroscience, in order to prepare students to make a transition from molecules and cells to behavior and human disease. The training faculty, composed of forty-three faculty from twelve departments in the College of Arts and Science and the School of Medicine, have well-funded research laboratories and offer diverse, state-of-the-art opportunities for research training in molecular, integrative and cognitive neuroscience. Students admitted into either the Neuroscience or Psychology (Cognitive) Ph.D. programs will be eligible for funding. All students supported on the training grant take an entry-level Neuroscience Foundations course, engage in research rotations in laboratories of the training faculty and participate in a variety of enrichment activities including teaching apprenticeships, seminar series, and annual retreat. Recruitment is coordinated by a Neuroscience Recruitment Committee, working closely with established committees for the individual programs.
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