The aim of our new, multidisciplinary institutional training program, based in the Schools of Medicine and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, is to train pre-doctoral engineering students and physician postdoctoral fellows in Neuroengineering and its clinical translation. Disorders of the nervous system, such as stroke, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, depression, dementia, and head trauma, constitute 35% of all disease and disability, and the burden is rising. There is an explosion of promising therapies for these disorders in new technologies to image, analyze, and modulate neural circuits, but translating these therapies from the laboratory to patients is a challenge. It requires talented engineers educated in clinical science and technically proficient physicians who speak the same language. Together these investigators must navigate a complex scientific, regulatory, and clinical landscape. Despite the huge demand, few formal, interdisciplinary Neuroengineering training programs exist. We propose a new program shared by the Penn Schools of Medicine and Engineering focused on Neuroengineering and Clinical Translation. Physician and Engineering trainees will together become fluent in cutting-edge technologies at the forefront of Neuroengineering, such as devices, neurostimulation, machine learning, and algorithm development; cloud computing, nanotechnology and materials science. They will innovate new therapies for human disease and gain a thorough understanding of the clinical, regulatory, and developmental environments necessary to safely bring new technologies to patients. The program's core is a group of collaborative, multidisciplinary faculty mentors in engineering and the clinical neurosciences. In addition to dedicated neuroengineering research, our training program includes: (1) a longitudinal mentored clinical experience for PhD candidates, (2) engineering lab immersion and tutorial for MD postdoctoral fellows, (3) formal courses and seminars in Engineering, Neuroscience and Medicine, (4) training in the proper conduct of research, and (5) workshops on professional and career development, including scientific writing, public presentations, grant writing, and laboratory management. The program will recruit from an excellent pool of ~50 MD fellows and 80-90 PhD students each year. This effort formalizes a collaboration that has trained an impressive array of Neuroengineering investigators over the past twelve years. The program, unique at Penn, leverages a superb research and training environment, including a compact campus where robust centers for Engineering, Medicine and Neuroscience all reside within two blocks of each other, united through Penn's new Center for Neuroengineering and Therapeutics.
Training Program in Neuroengineering and Medicine Disorders of the nervous system represent one of the largest, fastest growing areas of medical need in the United States. The most promising therapies for these disorders are new technologies to image, analyze, and modulate activity in neural circuits. There is a great need for engineers educated in clinical neuroscience and physicians with technical backgrounds to train and work together, to effectively bring these critical technologies to patient care. The goal of this multidisciplinary program is to train pre-doctoral Engineering students, and post-doctoral MD and MD-PhD fellows together in Neuroengineering research, and its translation to clinical care.
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