EXCEED THE SPACE PROVIDED. This is a renewal application for pre-doctoral training support for the Program in Neuroscience at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). This Program, chartered by the State of Maryland to offer the Ph.D. in Neuroscience as recently as 1997, offers broad based multidisciplinary training through study tracts in three areas of neuroscience: Behavioral/Systems, Cellular/Molecular and Developmental. We also offer limited training in cognitive and computational neuroscience. These areas reflect the research strengths of the faculty and are further codified in the following Research Focus Groups: Chemosensory, Neuroendocrinology, Neuroprotection, Pain, Schizophrenia, Synapses and Circuits and Clinical Neuroscience. The Training Program incorporates these areas with a combination of didactic courses, symposia and seminars and informal journal clubs. Participating faculty are based in clinical and basic science departments throughout the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmacy with over 70 independent Pi's. Of those, we have chosen 53 as preceptors on this application due to their outstanding training history, research credentials and history of funding. An established administrative structure provides support and identity for students during the first two years and prior to matriculating into a particular laboratory. A combination of required courses, a wide array of elective courses, seminars, journal clubs, professor's rounds and three mandatory laboratory rotations provide excellent training opportunities for students from a variety of academic backgrounds. Previous trainees have moved on to postdoctoral positions or medical residencies. A high percentage of students have obtained independent funding from the NIH and other agencies. The Program provides coherence and accessibility to interdisciplinary interactions often difficult to obtain under traditional departmental, school-based units. The program has been so successful on this campus, it is serving as the basis of a reorganization of all graduate programs, resulting in a substantial enlargement of the Program in Neuroscience as the sole source of training in neuroscience. The six pre- doctoral stipends requested each year in this application will be used to support outstanding students in their first two years prior to embarking full-time on laboratory research in one of the interdisciplinary research tracks. PERFORMANCE SITE ========================================Section End===========================================
| Harriott, A M; Dessem, D; Gold, M S (2006) Inflammation increases the excitability of masseter muscle afferents. Neuroscience 141:433-42 |
| Flake, Natasha M; Lancaster, Eric; Weinreich, Daniel et al. (2004) Absence of an association between axotomy-induced changes in sodium currents and excitability in DRG neurons from the adult rat. Pain 109:471-80 |
