Predoctoral and Postdoctoral Training Program in Aging and Dementia

This proposal is a request for continued funding of a broadly based predoctoral and postdoctoral Mechanisms of Aging and Dementia Training Program from the Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program (NUIN). Funding to support four advanced predoctoral candidates, after they have begun full-time thesis research, and four postdoctoral trainees in early or later stages of training, is requested. Training duration will be for two years with a goal to assist trainees in submitting and obtaining support from individual research fellowships following training grant support. This training program developed from a multidisciplinary group of investigators whose work focuses on the mechanisms of aging and dementia, including Alzheimer's Disease and related disorders, frontotemporal degeneration, Parkinson’s Disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, with approaches spanning molecular, cellular, systems, behavioral, neuropsychological and clinical neuroscience. These faculty are affiliated primarily with NUIN and the Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease, which has an NIA supported Alzheimer's Disease Research Center grant. The program will be co-directed by Robert Vassar, PhD, and Sandra Weintraub, PhD, in a Multi-PI format. They will have the assistance of Thorsten Kahnt, PhD, and Hongxin Dong, PhD, as Associate Directors, an internal Steering Committee and an External Advisory Committee. The four predoctoral and four postdoctoral trainees will conduct their research under the guidance of 48 preceptors from 13 departments of 3 schools on the Chicago and Evanston campuses of Northwestern University. Predoctoral trainees will be selected from NUIN and the other participating PhD programs on the basis of course performance, research rotation evaluations, and the relevance of proposed dissertation research. Postdoctoral trainees will be selected on the basis of previous training and a research plan. Special consideration will be given to trainees whose research plans are interdisciplinary and carried out in more than one preceptor laboratory. The program will offer a broad range of interdisciplinary research and training opportunities in both the fundamental and clinical approaches to aging and dementia research. The preceptor faculty will assist and monitor trainee progress through formal advising and evaluations, through the classroom and through informal discussions. In addition to providing research training, the program will help trainees develop skills in written and oral communication, grant writing, networking, career development and techniques for insuring reproducibility and accuracy of research findings. Instilling a clear awareness of ethical issues facing neuroscientists and responsible conduct in science will be another training goal.