We request continuing support for our postdoctoral training program in basic neuroscience as it relates to neurodegenerative disease and stroke. The program is closely integrated with several key research programs related to Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, ALS, and stroke, and to the Pittsburgh Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, now housed in contiguous space within a newly constructed state-of-the-art facility. Additional programs in psychiatric disorders and in neuro-AIDS further enhance the environment. The grant will permit us to maintain the critical mass needed to recruit the best possible postdoctoral trainees, including underrepresented minority trainees, and to offer a training program of the highest quality. Our training program focuses primarily on basic and translational laboratory research that can readily be related to neurodegenerative disease and stroke. The major research advisor and an individualized research advisory committee and the training grant steering committee share the task of guiding and monitoring each trainee. All trainees participate in four activities that supplement their research experience: 1) A seminars on the neurobiology of clinical disorders, 2) a monthly research discussion, 3) a series of professional development workshops, and 4) at least one outreach activity. Issues of responsible conduct are integrated into the entire program. Trainees also participate in courses as needed and have opportunities to teach and to observe clinical practice. The 33 members of the training faculty are members of the university-wide program in neuroscience with a particular interest in neurodegenerative disorders and stroke. Most of the faculty members have extensive experience in training and in research and have significant grant support. In addition, we have included a group of 9 junior faculty who have outstanding promise and will be available to serve as co-mentors in conjunction with a more senior faculty member. At present our training faculty supervise more than 90 postdoctoral trainees (in addition to a large number of pre-doctoral students), of whom about 20 are eligible for NRSA support. We are requesting stipends to support an initial complement of 4 postdoctoral trainees, increasing gradually to 6 over a 5-year period. We believe that our training program provides an opportunity for outstanding postdoctoral trainees to prepare for a career of direct relevance to issues of neurodegenerative disease and stroke.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Type
Institutional National Research Service Award (T32)
Project #
3T32NS007391-13S1
Application #
8134610
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZNS1-SRB-S (16))
Program Officer
Korn, Stephen J
Project Start
1997-07-01
Project End
2013-06-30
Budget Start
2010-07-01
Budget End
2011-06-30
Support Year
13
Fiscal Year
2010
Total Cost
$58,655
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Pittsburgh
Department
Neurology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
004514360
City
Pittsburgh
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
15213
Poplawsky, Alexander John; Fukuda, Mitsuhiro; Kang, Bok-Man et al. (2017) Dominance of layer-specific microvessel dilation in contrast-enhanced high-resolution fMRI: Comparison between hemodynamic spread and vascular architecture with CLARITY. Neuroimage :
Ruff, Douglas A; Cohen, Marlene R (2017) A normalization model suggests that attention changes the weighting of inputs between visual areas. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 114:E4085-E4094
Poplawsky, Alexander John; Fukuda, Mitsuhiro; Kim, Seong-Gi (2017) Foundations of layer-specific fMRI and investigations of neurophysiological activity in the laminarized neocortex and olfactory bulb of animal models. Neuroimage :
Oby, Emily R; Perel, Sagi; Sadtler, Patrick T et al. (2016) Extracellular voltage threshold settings can be tuned for optimal encoding of movement and stimulus parameters. J Neural Eng 13:036009
Ruff, Douglas A; Cohen, Marlene R (2016) Stimulus Dependence of Correlated Variability across Cortical Areas. J Neurosci 36:7546-56
Murphy, Matthew C; Poplawsky, Alexander J; Vazquez, Alberto L et al. (2016) Improved spatial accuracy of functional maps in the rat olfactory bulb using supervised machine learning approach. Neuroimage 137:1-8
Ruff, Douglas A; Cohen, Marlene R (2016) Attention Increases Spike Count Correlations between Visual Cortical Areas. J Neurosci 36:7523-34
Poplawsky, Alexander John; Fukuda, Mitsuhiro; Murphy, Matthew et al. (2015) Layer-Specific fMRI Responses to Excitatory and Inhibitory Neuronal Activities in the Olfactory Bulb. J Neurosci 35:15263-75
Iordanova, Bistra; Vazquez, Alberto L; Poplawsky, Alexander J et al. (2015) Neural and hemodynamic responses to optogenetic and sensory stimulation in the rat somatosensory cortex. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 35:922-32
Van Laar, Victor S; Roy, Nikita; Liu, Annie et al. (2015) Glutamate excitotoxicity in neurons triggers mitochondrial and endoplasmic reticulum accumulation of Parkin, and, in the presence of N-acetyl cysteine, mitophagy. Neurobiol Dis 74:180-93

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