Neurogenomics Research Training

Neuroscience, the study of brain development, function, plasticity, and disease, offers perhaps the most complex challenge in all of biology, relating the structure and output of genomes to the neural processes that ultimately register as thought, memory, emotion, and mood. The complexity of the biological mechanisms involved is mirrored by the interdisciplinary training required of neurobiologists, where years of postgraduate research and education are now needed to efficiently and competitively embrace the opportunities of brain science in a genomic age. Brain diseases, many with complex genetic underpinnings, constitute a great burden on individuals, families, caregivers, and society, dictating novel training mechanisms to increase the sophistication of both basic and clinical neuroscientists. Multiple genomes have been sequenced, including model systems of organisms where simpler nervous systems and powerful genetics offer an accelerated pace of discovery. New mouse and human genomic information is available that can lead both to important new disease models, to diagnostic insights, and to targeted therapies of brain disorders. At the same time, ³top-down² approaches in neurobiology have gained momentum, allowing a greater sophistication in behavioral phenotyping and direct visualization, via PET, SPECT, and fMRI, of functional specializations in the living brain. The next generation of neuroscientists will need to be able to tap genomic sciences but at the same time to recognize and to investigate more complex neurobiological processes that ultimately support brain disorders.

In this context, the Training Program in Neurogenomics organizes the postdoctoral training efforts of 35 senior and 16 junior faculty members in basic and clinical departments at Vanderbilt and Meharry Medical College through the Vanderbilt Center for Molecular Neuroscience. The program provides for formal research training and didactic instruction, as well as seminars and technical workshops at the interface of neuroscience and genomic research. The program is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. Funds support six postdoctoral trainees.