SIMPLE VERTEBRATE AND INVERTEBRATE SYSTEMS

Columbia University Health Sciences, New York NY

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Abstract

This is a broadly based multidisciplinary training program in Neurobiology that is now entering its 20th year at Columbia. The program has both pre- and postdoctoral components. It is a cooperative effort between the Departments of Anatomy and Cell Biology and the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior Three members of the Department of Biology participate through the Center. The Center for Neurobiology and Behavior is no longer a small research group, but now serves as a focal point for most of the neuroscientists at Columbia. This change and the consequent enlargement of the Center have greatly strengthened Columbia's program in the neural sciences. The university has also made a major commitment to continuing excellence in neurobiology. Extensive facilities and resources are available to the trainees both in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology as well as in the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior. Although the program has changed over the year by adding new recruits, stability in the leadership has been maintained; the original senior faculty are still participating. The new faculty have thus added vitality without changing the focus of the program. The major goal is still to provide trainees with a program in which they will inevitably be exposed to more than one subfield of neuroscience. Subfields represented include developmental neuroscience, neuroanatomy (including newly developed methods of imaging), neurochemistry, neuroimmunology neuropharmacology, neurophysiology, molecular biology, biophysics, and behavioral analysis. The training program has a faculty of 19, whose research interests are representative of many of the major approaches of modern neural science. These include recombinant DNA technology, patch clamp analyses, electron microscopy, immunocytochemistry, fluorescence assay of intracellular ions, cell culture, as well as methods of tracing neuronal interconnections and the movements of migrating neural and glial cells. The single most valuable element of training is research done under the sponsorship of members of the faculty. Joint sponsorship and free movement of trainees between laboratories is encouraged and frequent. Training by mentorship is supplemented by core and elective courses, seminar series (in each of the 2 participating units), research progress reports given by trainees and by members of the faculty, journal clubs, and an annual retreat. It is proposed that the size of the program be maintained, at 4 postdoctoral and 2 predoctoral trainees, because training opportunities have expanded, the interest of its faculty is strong, the University is so committed to the program that it provides supplemental support, and applications for pre- and post doctoral support have increased dramatically. Trainees that have entered the program have left it well prepared and much in demand for positions in academia and industry. Almost all trainees have continued to be productive in biomedical science.