Training grant will support education of future neuroscientists

HOUSTON - (Sept. 6, 2007) - A new federal grant will allow Baylor College of Medicine and other institutions in Houston to support the education of future researchers who can apply the tools of mathematics, physics and engineering to the problems of brain research.

The five-year, $727,000 Training in Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience grant is funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. It provides four predoctoral fellowships for graduate students with previous training in mathematics, physics and engineering seeking doctoral degrees. The students will work with mentors who are experts in both theoretical and experimental neuroscience.

"In addition to using theoretical tools, the students will be trained in state-of-the-art experimental methods, specifically those for complex multidimensional data acquisition, processing and visualization, as these are most prominent in advanced imaging techniques," said Dr. Peter Saggau, professor in the Baylor College of Medicine department of neuroscience and director of the new training program.

"Training will be a well-balanced combination of classroom instruction and hands-on labs," Saggau said.

The interdisciplinary, multi-institutional grant is awarded under the auspices of the Gulf Coast Consortia's educational arm, the Keck Center for Interdisciplinary Bioscience Training. Other institutions involved in the training program are Rice University, the University of Houston, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, UT Medical Branch in Galveston and the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Twenty-four researchers from these institutions will serve as training faculty.

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