Brief Research in Aging and Interdisciplinary Neurosciences (BRAIN) T35 Training Program

The Department of Neurology at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons is a worldwide leader in developing academic neurologists. The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center (NYP/CUIMC) campus provides a rich site for multidisciplinary neurological research, with particular focus on disorders associated with the aging nervous system.

Led by renowned Neurology clinician-scientists Drs. Richard Mayeux, Michio Hirano, Jennifer J. Manly, and James Noble, the NIH/NIA T35 BRAIN training program began in 2013 and provides a brief but intensive mentored summer research training experience for pre-doctoral students looking to develop careers in biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research. The program runs over a 10-week period in the summer between the first two years of medical school.

The BRAIN program provides opportunities in basic, behavioral, and clinical research (with the potential for subsequent development of a longitudinal research program) through ongoing research in the fields of basic neuroscience, neuropathology, neurogenetics, neuropsychology, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders, motor neuron disease, Parkinson’s disease and related disorders, and epilepsy, as well as neurologic clinical trials treating patients with these disorders.

In addition, a comprehensive, structured research education curriculum is given over the course of the intense research experience, with topics including good clinical practice, basic research methodologies, introductions to abstract authorship and poster presentations, and introduction of statistical concepts and approach to analyses, as well as epidemiologic and pathophysiologic reviews of the most common neurologic disorders associated with aging. This short-term, intense program builds upon this wealth of resources available at NYP/CUIMC through hands-on introductions to neurological research and comprehensive review of principles of research, to provide students with the best possible opportunity to develop research careers in the field of their choice.

Opportunities for new applications are intermittently available in late winter each year.

For more information about this program, please contact Dr. James Noble at jn2054@cumc.columbia.edu.