Training Grant in Neurobehavioral Genetics

PROJECT SUMMARY This is a proposal to renew a highly focused postdoctoral and predoctoral training program in Neurobehavioral Genetics. Elucidating the genetic basis of diseases of the nervous system promises to transform our understanding of some of the most prevalent, burdensome, and complex afflictions of humankind. The program bridges several longstanding dichotomies; between nervous system mechanisms and behavior, between neurology and psychiatry/psychology, between diseases and non-disease traits, and between humans and model organisms. The program provides exposure to the science of neurobehavioral phenotyping to individuals with basic or clinical science backgrounds And trainees, prior to their appointment, must commit to participate for such a duration. To establish a balanced cohort and reflect the merge of the two training grants in neurobehavioral genetics, which were previously funded separately by NIMH and NINDS, this program is designed support 6 predoctoral trainees and 3 postdoctoral trainees each year. With the yearly appointments of postdoctoral and predoctoral trainees and the two-year training of each participant, the overall group of trainees in the program at any time is 12. The program stresses the importance of, and provides unified training in, systematic delineation and assessment of nervous system phenotypes, including the integration of traditional clinical and cognitive evaluations with recently available phenotyping tools such as neuroimaging and gene expression profiling. The core curriculum of the program emphasizes phenotyping of the nervous system and advanced genetics, and is designed to promote interactions between the postdoctoral fellows and their predoctoral counterparts. A new curriculum element for this renewal is the support of a program faculty mentor with statistical and computational expertise who provides program-wide support to trainees. Furthermore, we are now aligning our training program with the highly successful UCLA Computational Genomics Summer Institute. In this way, all our trainees will receive practical training by mathematical and computational scientists, receive individual mentorship to advance their statistical and quantitative literacy, and obtain a thorough understanding of rigorous scientific research of neurobehavioral genetics, which includes bioinformatics analysis of high- throughput sequencing data and issues involved in large-scale data sharing. The program gains cohesion by a neurogenetics seminar series and an annual program retreat. Intensive research experience with a mentor chosen by the trainee constitutes the heart of the program. The ambitious goals of the program are achievable because the program faculty is very strong in virtually all of the areas that are relevant to neurobehavioral genetics, and because the faculty members have long embraced, in their research and teaching, the integrative and cross-disciplinary approach that is at the heart of the program.