Over this past Decade of the Brain, many of the most clinically important advances for patients with disease of the nervous system have come from the clinics and laboratories of physician-scientists. These individuals are best equipped to apply basic neuroscience information to the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of neurological disease. However, increasing emphasis on revenue generation, care for those who constitute the taxpaying and voting workforce, and repayment of medical school debt have made it increasingly difficult to attract, foster, and maintain a cadre of individuals at the residency or faculty level whose interests lie at the interface between basic and clinical neuroscience. It is therefore absolutely vital that we begin to recruit and nurture such individuals when they are in the early years of their medical school training. The presently proposed program of short-term research experiences in the neurological sciences is part of a more global effort at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine to attract and mentor students in preparation for careers in academic medicine and biomedical research. This program is designed to: 1) Give medical students the opportunity to engage in and understand clinical and/or basic neuroscience research, 2) develop in medical students the thinking skills and knowledge base that will allow their application of basic neurobiological principles to understanding normal function and clinical disorders of the nervous system, and 3) foster the academic careers of these medical students by providing the guidance, mentorship, and framework necessary for the conduct of scientifically sound, ethical, and clinically relevant research in neurobiology. The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has a long and productive history of facilitating neuroscience research as a part of the medical school experience of its matriculants. Funding of this program will perpetuate this history at an economically and academically critical time. ? ?
| Liang, Qinghua; Smith, Amanda D; Pan, Stephen et al. (2005) Neuroprotective effects of TEMPOL in central and peripheral nervous system models of Parkinson's disease. Biochem Pharmacol 70:1371-81 |
