This project would continue support for the Multidisciplinary Training Program in Neuroscience at the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in Portland. The program, about to enter its 20th year, provides broad, early stage training for graduate students entering the Neuroscience Graduate Program (NGP). The program is based at the Vollum Institute but includes faculty and students in many centers, department and institutes on the OHSU campus. The program includes 55 students (ca. 10 per year). Our training faculty of 55 scientists offers thesis research opportunities that include all levels of modern neuroscience research from state-of-the-art cryoEM studies of membrane proteins to systems neuroscience to disease-oriented and translational neuroscience. The program has undergone a number of innovations and changes since the last renewal as fully outlined in the proposal, highlighted by the recruitment of new leaders and new faculty in the neuroscience community at OHSU. The new faculty members bring new areas of research strength that supplement the ongoing research strengths in the NGP. The innovations include a unique core curriculum structure that begins with a week-long Boot Camp of followed by a 12-week intensive course that provides a broad foundation in neuroscience for all students in the program. The curriculum format, now in its 3rd year, allows first year student to engage in fulltime laboratory rotations within 4 months of entry into graduate school. The core curriculum is supplemented by workshops and individual instruction in specific techniques as well as professional skills, ethics and career planning. Additional emphasis is placed on fostering skills in experimental design, programming, and quantitative approaches to address NIH mandates in rigor, reproducibility and transparency. The spirit of at OHSU among the large neuroscience community, numbering approximately 150 affiliated scientists, combined with the diversity of its many research institutes, and the close proximity of basic and clinical research facilities provide a unique opportunity for early stage pre-doctoral students to establish and benefit from cross-disciplinary collaborations. This foundation will foster the skills necessary for graduates to be successful in a variety of science-related careers needed to fully understand and treat complex neuropsychiatric diseases.
The proposed training plan will educate early stage graduate students in the broad and interdisciplinary field of neuroscience. The program includes didactic coursework, training in critical thinking, experimental design and analysis, evaluation of laboratory research as well as sustained experience in laboratory research leading to a doctoral degree in neuroscience. The training plan also includes personal and professional ethics, professional skill development, and career planning. The training takes place in a medical university environment with both fundamental basic science research as well as translation and clinical research. The overall goal is to prepare trainees intellectually and technically to become the next generation of neuroscientists, which is critical to the understanding and future treatments of neuropsychiatric diseases.
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