The highly-interactive, interdisciplinary core of the Consortium (Projects 1-4), focusedon the development of targeted therapeutics for the neurodegenerative disorder, FXTAS, will be greatly enhanced by a post-graduate (T90) training component,the Interdisciplinary Training Program in Neurotherapeutics (ITN). In this non-traditional setting, the principal objective of the T90 will be to further the research effort of the Consortium, by attracting trainees who are intrinsically interested in interdisciplinary research and who will naturally bridge disciplines within the Consortium through inter-project, dual-mentorship. In turn, the Consortium will provide the trainee with an outstanding environment for training in interdisciplinary neuroscience, for it is an environmentthat fully spans both basic and clinical domains. Trainees from diverse disciplines and backgrounds, including chemistry, molecular biology, mouse biology and behavior, cognitive neuroscience and human functional neuroimaging, and clinical neuroscience disciplines (neurology, psychiatry, pediatrics and clinical psychology), will train together in the ITN. The ITNwill emphasize both individualized research training across at least two Consortium laboratories (dual mentorship) and a set of core competencies that spans the entire range of the represented disciplines. The program will target trainees who can be positioned to bridge different laboratories in order to create a new kind of investigator, one who can go beyond traditional roles and lead future mechanistic studies and intervention efforts aimed towards understanding and treating neurogenetic developmental disorders from a truly interdisciplinary perspective. The T90 will provide interdisciplinary research through an Individualized Training Plan, which will consist of five key elements: (1) mentored researchtraining bridging across two distinct projects in the Consortium;(2) participation in a didactic program to develop Core Competencies;(3) observational training in clinical assessments in neurogenetic disorders;(4) participation in selected individualized coursework;and (5) career development activities. In addition to the novel training opportunities provided through the T90, the training will leverage existing training programs in the DCDavis School of Medicine in autism research, clinical and translational research, and the responsible conduct of research.
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