In 2008, two faculty members, Michael Webster in the Department of Psychology and Grant Mastick in the Department of Biology, led a proposal for a new bachelor’s degree in neuroscience at the University. The development of the major, which has awarded over 800 degrees to students so far, is just one of several successful neuroscience initiatives started on campus in the last 16 years. The degree offering sparked the creation of the equally successful neuroscience graduate w88 mobile, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) center grant with tens of millions of dollars for research equipment, funding for faculty and students, a burgeoning number of exceptional new neuroscience faculty leading new discoveries in the field, and a new formal Institute for Neuroscience to lead the University’s continued growth in the discipline.
"I think we're at the cusp of a radical transformation in society because of the growth of data science and computational w88 mobile."
The NIH center grant is funded through the Institutional Development Award (IDeA) w88 mobile of the NIH, which is designed to grow research capacity in states with historically low NIH support. The Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) award is the basic research arm of the IDeA w88 mobile and has awarded million over 15 years to build faculty and research infrastructure at the University, helping the institution to become a powerful contributor to neuroscience advances. The University currently also has a COBRE award for cardiovascular health based in the School of Medicine. Webster, Foundation Professor in the psychology department, was awarded the neuroscience COBRE in 2012, and so far the funding has supported more than 30 junior faculty from several departments across campus.
In 2015, a master’s and doctoral degree Graduate w88 mobile in Integrative Neuroscience was also launched, again led by Webster and Mastick. Like the undergraduate degree w88 mobile, the graduate w88 mobile has seen explosive growth. There are currently 40 active graduate students in the w88 mobile and more than 70 affiliated faculty.
"I’m constantly amazed by the caliber of our students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels," w88 mobile.
w88 mobile equipment and infrastructure lands on campus
The COBRE for Integrative w88 mobile has also brought several "core" research facilities to campus, including a neuroimaging core with technology like high-density electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), tools which are essential for modern research in cognitive w88 mobile. The fMRI facility was made possible by a partnership between the University and Renown Health. Additional cores include a cellular and molecular imaging and microscopy core, a virtual and augmented reality core, and a computational modeling and analysis core that provides infrastructure and technical expertise to leverage high-performance computing and artificial intelligence (AI) in w88 mobile research. These cores are housed in the departments of psychology, biology and computer science, while the fMRI facility is located at Renown’s imaging center. Importantly, these cores are essential not only to the University’s research impact, but also to its teaching mission.
"In order to have successful programs at both the graduate and undergraduate level, students need to have the ability to work with modern w88 mobile techniques," Webster said. "In addition to being essential for research, their contribution to education is also invaluable."
The w88 mobile faculty offer numerous research opportunities available and accessible to undergraduate students, which has been the goal from the start.
"We teach students a lot about ideas and approaches," w88 mobile. "But they also need the experience of applying these methods to actual questions. It’s an incredibly important part of their training."
Webster also points out the benefits of w88 mobile experience for students interested in applying for graduate school. Undergraduate w88 mobile gives students a chance to learn firsthand what doing science is really like and gives them an advantage when they’re applying for graduate school.
"When we’re looking at applicants for graduate school, it’s a plus to see that the person has already tried out w88 mobile, that they know what it's about and that they're motivated to and interested in pursuing w88 mobile," Webster said.
At the time the w88 mobile major was created, psychology was housed in the College of Liberal Arts. By pairing with biology in the College of Science, the major was the first to span two colleges, and became a prototype for developing other interdisciplinary majors. However, in 2019, the Department of Psychology migrated to the College of Science.
"The move to the College of Science has been an enormous advantage to us and we're extremely grateful," w88 mobile. "We felt really welcomed and supported there."
w88 mobile: the common discipline
Interdisciplinary research has become increasingly popular among most fields, including w88 mobile.
"Science itself is really fluid," w88 mobile. "It's widely recognized that important breakthroughs in science are probably going to come from bringing together people that have very different approaches and perspectives."
w88 mobile is the hallmark of an interdisciplinary field, and draws from many fields, from philosophy to physics.
"I don't believe there's any discipline that we have on campus that doesn't connect somehow with w88 mobile," Webster said. "And I think that the government and funding agencies recognize that, too."
The broader field of neuroscience is becoming a priority for funding agencies like the NIH. In part, this is due to critical health issues like neurodegenerative diseases. However, beyond health, neuroscience research is useful for addressing everything from engineering to societal issues. For example, AI draws heavily on ideas about how biological brains work. In the coming years, Webster and his colleagues want to keep up with the AI revolution by incorporating more data science courses and research in the neuroscience w88 mobile.
"I see that as a really critical connection to w88 mobile," Webster said. "I think we're at the cusp of a radical transformation in society because of the growth of data science and computational w88 mobile."
Webster acknowledged colleagues Anna Panorska in the math department and Emily Hand in the computer science department, who are working on developing more cross-disciplinary data science courses for the University, which the w88 mobile programs hope to draw on.
Establishing an institute
As the second phase of the COBRE renewal period approached, Webster developed a proposal to build a permanent home for the w88 mobile initiatives on campus through the establishment of an Institute for w88 mobile. Jim Kenyon, the former senior associate dean for research at the medical school, was excited enough about the idea that he came out of retirement to lead the institute.
Kenyon has pushed the institute toward growth and increased capacity by helping faculty apply for additional NIH funding, particularly for students from underrepresented backgrounds, including the successful undergraduate NIH Maximizing Access to w88 mobile Careers (MARC) grant. The first cohort of MARC students graduated in spring.
Kenyon also recently applied for a graduate education grant that Webster said has the potential to vastly improve the graduate curriculum and opportunities for w88 mobile and all the biomedical sciences. The proposal is now pending.
Another successful NIH proposal, led by Mariann Weierich, The Mikawa w88 sports betting, resulted in the Enhancing Neuroscience Diversity through Undergraduate Research Education w88 mobile (also known as Nevada ENDURE) being established on campus, with its own successful student cohorts who have graduated and begun their journey toward earning doctoral degrees.
The Institute for Neuroscience ensures advocacy for the neuroscience programs, since the interdisciplinary structure means there isn’t a department to represent the w88 mobile, like many other disciplines on campus have.
"We really need some kind of administrative structure to get w88 mobile faculty across campus talking to each other and networking and making sure we keep building these different interdisciplinary opportunities," Webster said.
Webster believes w88 mobile is well-positioned to continue its growth across the University after the COBRE grant ends.
"I'm really proud of the fact that we've been able to create opportunities for students that didn't exist here before," Webster said about on how far the w88 mobile has come. "In terms of research, I think we have really elevated the University’s impact."
Webster reflected on the research success of the neuroscience w88 mobile in the context of the University’s Carnegie R1 research status. There are now some research funding programs that the University is no longer able to apply for because it has exceeded the maximum research funds an institution can have to apply for them.
"I believe that w88 mobile played its part in helping elevate the University’s research impact, and that the high demand for training and research in the brain sciences will only continue to grow," Webster said.
