This is an application for continuing support for an institutional Training Program in Neuropsychopharmacology. The aim of the Program is to train scientists who will be able to carry out productive research in their individual fields effectively at the "preclinical-clinical" interface, and more effectively translate research from the laboratory to the bedside. This objective is addressed by having the postdoctoral Fellows attend specific courses and activities, by arranging for exposure of all non-physicians to clinicians and by facilitating interactions between preclinical and clinical investigators. The didactic portion of the Program comprises about 15% of a postdoctoral Fellow's time;most of their time is spent doing research in the facilities of one or more of the 28 faculty members of the Training Program. The approaches and expertise of the faculty are broad and diverse, and enable us to provide training at the molecular, cellular, neuroanatomical, animal behavioral and/or clinical level. Support is requested for five postdoctoral and three predoctoral Fellows yearly. Postdoctoral Fellows in the Program will be either (1) students with doctoral degrees in pharmacology, psychology, psychobiology or a related discipline, or (2) physicians who have completed at least three years of specialist training in psychiatry or, in selected instances, other specialty areas (e.g., pediatrics, neurology). New to the program is the addition of a postdoctoral slot dedicated to a physician-scientist. Predoctoral fellows will be graduates of a four-year program in biology, chemistry, psychology or a related discipline;upon successful completion of the program, they will receive a doctoral degree in pharmacology or neuroscience. The multidisciplinary program involves faculty from six departments in the School of Medicine as well as faculty from the Schools of Veterinary Medicine and Arts and Sciences. The faculty members of the Training Program have a history of collaboration in both teaching and research projects, and could easily accommodate co-mentoring arrangements between physicians and non-physicians. The predoctoral Fellows are advanced graduate students in pharmacology or neuroscience and take a series of courses designed to provide them with background in the anatomical, biochemical and physiological bases of pharmacology, with an emphasis on neuropsychopharmacology. Specific courses taught by Training Program faculty and other activities have been developed that emphasize the consideration of clinical practice in psychiatry in the conduct of basic research.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter