Members of the Department of Neurosciences and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of the Medical University of South Carolina propose to develop a graduate-level course on the Biology of Neurological and Neuropsychiatric Diseases. The overall goals are to (1) involve graduate students in active learning about the neurobiological substrates underlying disorders of the nervous system and to (2) disseminate the instructional material as a web-based course to the neuroscience community at large. This 4 credit course will be a required part of the Ph.D. program in Neurosciences and also will be open to the neuroscience community at large. It will be scheduled during the spring semester of the second year of graduate study. The course will cover the underlying mechanisms and pathobiology of a wide range of neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases. Each 2 hour session will include clinical presentations of a particular disorder, translational research, medications development/treatment, and ethical issues in clinical research relevant to the disorder (hour 1), and discussions of the neurobiological substrates and animal models of the disorder (hour 2). Where possible, live or pre-recorded interviews of patients will be presented. Clinical and basic scientists will teach each topic in the course as a team and, in areas where outside expertise would enhance understanding, prominent neuroscientists in the field will be invited to lecture and spend significant time with the students. Course materials will be disseminated on the Department of Neurosciences graduate studies webpage. ? ?
