This is a revised renewal application for pre-doctoral training support for the Program in Neuroscience at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). This relatively young program (10 yrs) offers broad based multidisciplinary training in three areas of neuroscience: Behavioral/Systems, Cellular/Molecular and Developmental Neuroscience which reflects the research strengths of the faculty and are further codified in the following Research Focus Groups: Chemosensory, Drug Abuse, Neuroendocrinology, Neuroprotection, Pain, Schizophrenia, Synapses and Circuits and Clinical Neuroscience. The Training Program incorporates these areas by a combination of didactic courses, symposia, 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 100 independent Pi's. Of those, we have chosen 56 as preceptors due to their outstanding training record, research credentials and history of funding. A strong administrative structure provides support and identity for students during the first 2 yrs and prior to matriculating into a laboratory. Implementation of a novel core curriculum provides vertical integration across three modules that advance from molecular genetics through structure and function to physiology. This first semester intensive course which includes extensive neuroscience curricula is complimented by a parallel one-credit course in Molecular Neuroscience &Biophysics. In the spring semester of the first year, students take broad-based Systems and Cognitive Neuroscience course and a wide array of electives, seminars, journal clubs, professor's rounds and three mandatory laboratory rotations. This combination provides excellent training for students from a variety of academic backgrounds. Previous trainees have moved on to postdoctoral positions or medical residencies. Many 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 and has been recognized at the University level as a model for a recent reorganization that eliminated all departmentally based graduate programs. The predoctoral stipends requested 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
