Translational Neuroscience Training for Clinicians

About This Grant

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The proposed Translational Neuroscience Training for Clinicians (TNTC) T32 program leverages the breadth and depth of the Boston clinical and neuroscience community to provide outstanding postdoctoral research training for clinician-scientists. Our program addresses a pressing need in the psychiatry research workforce: strengthening the pipeline for clinically trained individuals to enter translational neuroscience research careers. We are well-positioned to address this important gap, with access to both a talented pool of trainees from outstanding psychiatry residency and psychology internship programs, as well as an expansive network of basic, translational, and clinical investigators across Harvard and its affiliates. Program faculty members are seasoned investigators and mentors based at the MGH Department of Psychiatry or the Broad Institute, and each has independent funding as part of a multidisciplinary research portfolio. We are requesting support for a total of five postdoctoral fellows, who will each be co-mentored by one clinical and one translational/basic scientist. Two to three new trainees, either psychiatrists or psychologists who have recently completed their clinical training, will enter the program each year and receive a maximum of three years of support. Trainees will receive cross-disciplinary mentorship that spans two of four research “hubs,” consisting of (1) the numerous clinical research programs within the MGH Department of Psychiatry, (2) the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, (3) the MGH Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, and (4) the Stanley Center of the Broad Institute. Leveraging vast datasets from across these programs, trainees will develop mentored research projects that bridge the domains of clinical research, brain imaging, genomics, animal models, and cell/molecular biology through forward and/or reverse translation. Specialized didactic training encompasses these domains and general issues in translational research, including biostatistics, ethics, scientific writing, and career planning, in preparation for career development awards or other independent funding applications to be submitted during the fellowship period. Our trainees will, therefore, enter the fellowship period with a deep, first-hand knowledge of unmet clinical needs in psychiatry; they will graduate with a foundation of cutting-edge tools to address these needs over their careers. We have an accomplished and experienced faculty in terms of scientific expertise and methodology who have enthusiastically participated in primary mentorship and teaching in our didactic program. This T32 program will provide a strong, longitudinal mentored research experience for fellows, guided by program faculty, to foster critical scientific contributions and enhance the career development of trainees, supporting their transition to productive, independent careers in academic medicine.