Psychiatric neuroscience is an exciting and burgeoning field that has contributed to many recent major discoveries regarding the relationship between neurobiology and behavior. An enhanced commitment to this research in the next decade holds the promise of major advances in the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric illnesses such as depression, schizophrenia, and substance abuse disorders. The University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) has made a major commitment to this field of medicine over the past 8 years by the recruitment of a number of prominent scientists and clinicians engaged in psychiatric neuroscience research. UMMC proposes to build on this existing strength by establishing the Center for Research Excellence in Psychiatric Neuroscience (CREPN). The CREPN will create and maintain a quality research environment highly conducive to productive and clinically-oriented basic research in the psychiatric neurosciences. A major goal of CREPN will be to nurture the transition of junior faculty neuroscientists to independent researchers through a multi-disciplinary program of cutting-edge psychiatric neuroscience research. The CREPN will foster a diverse and nationally competitive environment that will facilitate research careers of junior faculty and will foster collaborations between psychiatric neuroscientists at UMMC and throughout Mississippi. These goals will be achieved by establishing formal mentoring relationships between junior psychiatric neuroscientists and senior faculty with established records in NIH-funded psychiatric neuroscience research. The CREPN will enhance the methodological sophistication of junior investigators by providing access to state-of-the-art core facilities including a core facility for behavioral studies, a cellular neuroimaging facility, an interactive web-based psychiatric neuroscience resource, and a collection of psychiatrically-characterized post-mortem brains. In addition, a neuroscientist that utilizes predominantly molecular biological approaches to psychiatric neuroscience research will be recruited to the Center. Overall, the establishment of the CREPN will enrich and diversify the academic environment in Mississippi for junior investigators in psychiatric neuroscience and thereby enhance their ability to compete nationally through traditional granting mechanisms.
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