This is the renewal application of the Neurological Sciences Academic Development Award (NSADA) that has supported six trainees in pediatric neurology at Washington University over the past decade. The new application reflects the growth and changes in pediatric neurology over the last decade and includes mentors with research and clinical expertise in academic areas that have direct impact on modern pediatric neurology: developmental neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, neuronal injury, and epilepsy. Several mentors have overlapping areas of interest. The proposed mentors come from within the Department of Neurology, as well as the Departments of Anatomy & Neurobiology, Genetics Psychiatry, Molecular Biology & Pharmacology, and Neurological Surgery. The program will be specifically tailored for the four trainees and depend heavily upon their prior research experience and career preferences. Trainees who enter the program with extensive research experience will be encouraged to replenish their fund of knowledge and then embark upon new research with the guidance of the Program Director and an Executive Committee. Less experienced trainees may spend up to a year in formal course work in the Neuroscience Program of the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences of Washington University. In either case, trainees will be able to draw on the resources of 23 mentor faculty committed to this application and a wider neuroscience community comprised of more than 120 faculty engaged in active research. While trainees will be expected to receive most of their supervision from their specific mentors, there is enormous interaction between the senior mentors and their respective laboratories, so trainees will have abundant opportunities for contact with experienced researchers. Graduates of NSADA training should be competitive for independent funding after completion of three years.
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