Research Training for Child Psychiatry and Neurodevelopment

This application represents a competitive renewal of a highly successful institutional postdoctoral training grant based in Stanford’s Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research (CIBSR), under the direction of Dr. Allan Reiss. The program is embedded in a research-intensive environment that is designed to facilitate the development of a new generation of investigators skilled in interdisciplinary research at the forefront of child psychiatry and neurodevelopment. Eligible candidates include MDs, MD/PhDs, and PhDs with potential for productive preclinical, clinical, or translational research careers. Physician candidates must have completed at least three years of training in psychiatry, pediatrics, or neurology, or plan to combine the T32 with their residency/fellowship. PhD candidates must have completed doctorates in relevant fields such as psychology, neuroscience, or computational sciences. Applicants with strong motivation to address precision medicine themes in pediatric neuropsychiatry are prioritized. Now in its 31st year, the program has trained 26 fellows (5 MDs, 3 MD/PhDs, 17 PhDs, 1 EdD) over the past 15 years. During the current grant period, the program met all goals: attracting 75 applicants, filling all slots (four per year), and retaining all but one trainee for 2–3 years (except one fellow who joined the faculty after one year), and prepared trainees for successful careers as independent investigators. The program fosters successful independent investigators and uses flexible mentor assignments with co-mentorship as the norm. The scientific scope is broad, spanning basic, clinical, and translational research. Several new junior mentors, including three Stanford postdoc alumni, have been added to partner with senior mentors, including three faculty who are graduates of Stanford postdoctoral fellowships. In the next 5-year period, 9–11 additional fellows will be trained. Plans are in place to increase MD and MD/PhD recruitment beyond the current 2 of 10 fellows. Each trainee will receive an individually tailored plan for didactics, mentorship, and research. We will focus the trainee’s curriculum and research training on bridging traditional, between-discipline gaps in methodology, and on focusing on the application of interdisciplinary solutions to complex precision medicine issues in child psychiatry and neurodevelopment.