The Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program was established at MU in 1997 as a graduate training program in neurosciences. The program recruited its first class in 1999 and officially became a degree-granting program in 2001.
The program provides an organization and forum uniting researchers across campus in collaborative neuroscience research. It defines interdisciplinary research as that which utilizes approaches and techniques from different fields under the supervision of a multidisciplinary team of scientists. These scientists have combined expertise to study an integrative problem in neuroscience through hypothesis- and discovery-driven research.
It includes more than 40 faculty members, 12 postdoctoral fellows, 25 research specialists and more than 50 graduate students. Neuroscientists in these groups are engaged in basic, clinical, and translational research. Research conducted in laboratories participating of faculty members has led to the publication of more than 1,200 peer-reviewed journal articles. More than $5.6 million in external funding has been garnered to support these research projects.
Through a combination of coursework and research projects in faculty laboratories, graduate students in neuroscience at MU gain a solid understanding of the nervous system and of the use of experimental methodology to acquire this knowledge. The program been successful in training graduate students for careers in neuroscience, and doctoral graduates continue to pursue careers at prestigious universities.
Along with completing comprehensive coursework in molecular, cellular, systems and behavioral neurosciences, professional survival skills, and ethical conduct of research, graduate students join a research laboratory and work with senior scientists to master the relevant technical skills and theoretical concepts in their chosen research area. Students in the program have the opportunity to present their original research findings in departmental seminars, journal club meetings, and at national and international professional scientific conferences.
