The Society for Neuroscience (SfN), the world's leading professional association for the field of neuroscience, seeks a five-year renewal grant for its successful Neurobiology of Disease Workshop (NDW). The next decade is expected to lead to breakthroughs in neuroscience and rapid translation of discoveries to improving human health and will require new generations of disease-focused basic researchers. A cornerstone of SfN's mission is to provide educational resources to neuroscientists at all stages of their careers, and the NDW has had a strong 30-year track record as the most successful national-level workshop specifically aimed at attracting young basic neuroscientists to the study of diseases of the nervous system. The overall goal of the NDW remains to inspire new basic science researchers from multiple disciplines to focus on disease research that will ultimately contribute to advancing the treatment of important neurological disorders. The four specific aims of the program are: 1) to introduce young neuroscientists to important unsolved scientific problems that relate directly to diseases of the nervous system;2) to show neuroscientists in training the human side of diseases of the nervous system;3) to promote the exchange of information on state-of-the-art disease-related research among the faculty and students;and 4) to broaden the reach of the workshop by disseminating its content beyond the SfN annual meeting. SfN will achieve these aims by assembling top experts in a specific disease area each year to introduce the latest problems and ideas through a day-long workshop for 250 participants. The workshops, held at the Society's annual meetings, are comprised of a morning of carefully rehearsed and integrated didactic lectures and patient interviews, followed by an afternoon of small interactive discussion groups led by active scientific and clinical experts. New to this grant cycle will be efforts aimed at increasing the impact of the NDW program. Young neuroscientists unable to attend the workshop will benefit from recorded lectures and slides on CD-ROM. In addition, SfN will organize a follow-up webinar and online discussion forum after each workshop, to further encourage and engage NDW attendees and others to pursue studies and discussions on the specific neurological disease or disorder.
The overall goal of the Neurobiology of Disease Workshop (NDW) is to introduce, the world of neurological disease to the basic scientist, with the expectation that whatever their interest or expertise in the nervous system, they may bring extraordinary new questions, ideas and even solutions to problems that baffle those in the field. These one-day workshops take place at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting each year and are organized by the top leaders in a specific disease. NDW is composed of a morning of carefully integrated didactic lectures and patient interviews, followed by an afternoon of small interactive discussion groups led by active scientific and clinical experts. The program will benefit 250 young neuroscientists at each workshop and countless others via Web-based dissemination activities.
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