LETTER OF INTENT TO ESTABLISH M.S. AND Ph.D. DEGREES IN NEUROSCIENCE

I. Letter of Intent

Institution__Georgia State University______Date_____March 17, 2008______

School/Division__College of Arts & Sciences___Department__Biology, Psychology,

Math & Statistics, Physics & Astronomy, Philosophy, Computer Science___

Name of Proposed Program_____ Ph.D. in Neuroscience______

Degree ___M.S., Ph.D._____Major ___Neuroscience_____ CIP Code______

Starting Date _August 2009___

Signatures:

Unit Heads
______
Neuroscience Institute / ______
Psychology / ______
Biology
______
Physics & Astronomy / ______
Math & Statistics / ______
Philosophy
______
Chemistry / ______
Computer Information Systems / ______
Computer Science
Program Directors
______
Brains & Behavior Area of Focus / ______
Center for Behavioral Neuroscience / ______
Center for Neuromics
______
Center for Research on Atypical Development and Learning / ______
LanguageResearchCenter / ______
College Deans
______
Arts & Sciences / ______ / ______

1. Introduction

1.A. Overview

This letter of intent describes a plan for establishing a multidisciplinary, multi-departmental, degree-offering Neuroscience Program that will enhance the behavioral and life sciences training and research efforts of Georgia State University (GSU). The program will respond to requests from students and a need for highly trained specialists in the areas of Neurobiology and Behavioral Neuroscience. The Neuroscience Program will provide students with the training necessary for careers in the rapidly expanding biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries as well as for academic careers. Recent studies and our own survey (appended) clearly indicate that prospective students in the neurosciences prefer to earn advanced degrees specifically in Neuroscience rather than in traditional biological or behavioral science programs. The Neuroscience Program will therefore enhance the ability of GSU to compete for top graduate students nationally and internationally.

The proposed program will be administered through the newly created Neuroscience Institute at GSU. It is a natural extension of the present Neuroscience-related concentrations within the Ph.D. programs in the Biology and Psychology departments. Research in the Biology Department’s Neurobiology and Behavior concentration includes neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, neuroendocrinology, developmental neuroscience, neuromodulation, neuroethology, neural control of peripheral metabolism, and pain research. Research in the Psychology Department’s Neuropsychology and Behavioral Neuroscience concentration includes neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, neuroendocrinology, developmental neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, neuroethology, clinical neuropsychology, the study of mood (affective) disorders, learning and memory, social behavior, language, and hearing. In addition there are faculty and students in other departments that are working in Neuroscience-related areas, including theory of mind studies in Philosophy, robotics and neural modeling in Computer Science, Computer Information Systems, Math & Statistics, and Physics & Astronomy, Neuromics in Computer Science, and drug development and imaging strategies in Chemistry.

Several centers and programs with a focus on various and diverse aspects of the neurosciences already exist at GSU. These programs will be the foundation for the development of our proposed doctoral program in the Neurosciences. The following section describes these programs:

  • The Center for Behavioral Neuroscience (CBN) founded in 2000 is an NSF-funded Science and TechnologyCenter, and is a consortium of more than 100 researchers at seven Atlanta institutions examining the neural mechanisms underlying complex social behaviors. GSU is the lead institution and administrative unit of the CBN. The social behaviors that are essential for species survival, such as fear, affiliation, aggression, and reproductive behaviors, are an important frontier in Neuroscience. The research efforts are complemented by an educational program designed to integrate scientific progress into the curricula of students at all levels. In addition, there is knowledge transfer conducted to promote science literacy. Therefore, the CBN works with its community partners -- Zoo Atlanta, the Fernbank Museum of Natural History, and the Georgia Aquarium-- to develop Neuroscience-related educational exhibits and activities, as well as with the Georgia Biomedical Partnership. CBN’s mission of integrating neuroscience research and education, and of stimulating interdisciplinary research would also be enhanced by a neuroscience doctoral program at GSU, and would in turn provide a valuable asset to it. The CBN has developed into having a leading role in linking GSU to the undergraduate and graduate programs of several strong colleges and universities in Atlanta, including institutions with a high proportion of underrepresented minorities. These links include obtaining resources for graduate training in neurosciences via federally funded training grants and foundation grants in targeted areas. Presently, such grants are strongly helped by being multi-institutional and by offering training that cuts across traditional academic departments. A neuroscience doctoral program at GSU would help in obtaining such external funding, both by allowing students access to training across GSU departments and by facilitating the integration of a GSU graduate training program with those at other Atlanta institutions. At the same time, the CBN will provide links between neuroscience students trained at GSU and complementary programs, facilities, and mentoring opportunities at institutions such as Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Morehouse School of Medicine. Furthermore, a neuroscience doctoral program at GSU would aid the CBN’s efforts to increase minority recruitment into neuroscience graduate programs and more generally to elevate the national profile of GSU as a major center for neuroscience research and education.
  • The Center for Neuromics,founded in 2006, emerged from the former Center for Neural Communication and Computation. This Center fosters research that takes advantage of recent advances in molecular, physiological, and computational techniques to support research in the study of neurons and their interactions. An ultimate goal is to build increasingly precise cellular wiring diagrams of the brain. The Center is dedicated to supporting efforts in this field through sponsorship of seminars and conferences and providing funding for students.
  • The Center for Research on Atypical Development and Learning (CRADL) is an interdisciplinary center founded in 1998 that stimulates basic and applied research and facilitates educational and outreach efforts. CRADL consists of 23 faculty members who represent a broad span of academic orientations including developmental, clinical and educational psychology, neuropsychology, special education, and speech-language pathology. CRADL and its faculty coordinate and support scholarly efforts that focus on gaining a fuller understanding of atypical development and learning processes from birth through adolescence.
  • The Language Research Center (LRC), founded in 1971, is a world renowned primate research facility. At the LRC, scientists from GSU and around the world conduct cognitive, biobehavioral, social and cultural research with bonobos (Pan paniscus), chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), monkeys (Macaca mulatta) and human adults and children. Located on a wooded 55-acre facility south of Atlanta, the LRC is supported by the College of Arts and Sciences, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and other agencies. The varied research programs in learning, memory, attention, executive functioning, problem solving, spatial cognition, numerical reasoning, categorization, tool making and use, and communication find convergence under the LRC banner.
  • The Clinical Neuropsychology Laboratories, founded in 1983, share the goal of investigating cognitive and emotional functions in humans using several methodologies, including functional neuroimaging, psychophysiology, experimental cognitive tasks, and traditional clinical neuropsychological assessment measures. The faculty has interests in learning more about the biological, psychological, and social-environmental processes underlying developmental disorders and acquired neurological conditions across the lifespan. Their goals are to advance the understanding of brain-behavior relationships, and to further the development of empirically validated classification criteria, reliable and valid assessment measures and effective intervention strategies for these clinical populations.
  • The Brains & Behavior Area of Focus, founded in 2004, is an initiative at GSU that unites a wide variety of researchers who bring unique perspectives to the study of how nervous systems produce behavior. This initiative builds upon GSU's successes in the Neurosciences. These groups foster collaborations between faculty from the Departments of Biology, Chemistry, Computer Information Systems, Computer Science, Mathematics and Statistics, Philosophy, Physics and Astronomy, and Psychology. Brains & Behavior also forms an umbrella organization for ResearchCenters such as the CBN, the Center for Brain Science and Health, the Center for Neuromics, the Language Research Center, and the SoutheastCollaborativeAllianceBiocomputingCenter. New students are currently and will continue to be recruited nationally and internationally.

It is expected, based on data from the Association of Neuroscience Departments and Programs (ANDP), that titling a degree as “Neuroscience” will be highly attractive and will markedly increase the number of qualified applicants to the doctoral programs. Women and minorities will continue to be recruited aggressively. Currently the Department of Biology offers M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biology with a concentration in Neurobiology and Behavior (NBB). The NBB program currently has approximately 19 M.S. and 32 Ph.D. students mentored by neurobiology faculty. The average number of M.S. and Ph.D. students in NBB to graduate each year is 10 and 4, respectively. The Department of Psychology offers M.A. and Ph.D. degrees with a concentration in Neuropsychology and Behavioral Neuroscience (NBN). The NBN program currently has 16 M.A. candidates and 11 Ph.D. candidates that have already earned their M.A. The average number of M.A. and Ph.D. students in NBN to graduate each year is 3 and 2 respectively. It is expected that these numbers would increase by 50-100% if marketing could be targeted to a Neuroscience degree.

A Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience will benefit the University, the System, and the state in many ways, including those described in the following section:

  • NEUROSCIENCE IS Interdisciplinary, A KEY IN TODAY’S SCIENCE

The interdisciplinary nature of Neuroscience research is fundamental and thereby unites faculty across various disciplines as perhaps no other life science initiative can, as witnessed by the Brains & Behavior Area of Focus incorporation of 9 different departments from 3 different colleges. Neuroscience encompasses several fields of biological and behavioral research and is typically subdivided into the following disciplines: Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, Systems and Integrative Neuroscience, Behavioral Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience, Computational Neuroscience, and Clinical Neuroscience. Allied areas include biophysics of membranes, biochemistry of neurotransmitters and signal transduction pathways, robotics, brain/computer interfaces, learning/educational research, psychotropic drug design, social behavior, marketing strategy, philosophy of mind, and others.

  • NEUROSCIENCE IS BIG BUSINESS

Neuroscience has attracted the lion’s share of federal funding in recent decades, particularly in the “Decade of the Brain” established by Congress from 1990 to 2000. Approximately $5 billion are currently awarded by NIH to Neuroscience-related projects in the USA. Another $800 million comes from NSF, with smaller amounts from Howard Hughes, the McKnight Foundation, March of Dimes, Whitehall Foundation, Klingenstein, drug companies, and neurological disease-specific funding agencies. Additional awards come from other government sectors such as the Departments of Defense and Education. The average annual level of Neuroscience funding at GSU over the last five years has been $5,685,160. The CBN seed funds for research and student training have leveraged over $8 million since inception. A neuroscience degree would act as a recruitment tool so that more highly trained scientists can be hired, and as a marketing strategy to get attention by funding agencies.

  • NEUROSCIENCE IS THE LAST MAJOR FRONTIER IN MEDICINE

The major medical problems facing the population in the foreseeable future are brain problems. The killer diseases of previous generations, such as polio, heart disease, cancer, and even diabetes, are increasingly preventable or treatable, but diseases or injuries of the brain currently have few solutions. Topics related to these diseases include:

Drug abuse

Social pathology (e.g. various anti-social personality disorders)

Spinal cord regeneration

Traumatic brain injury

Epilepsy

Childhood developmental disorders

Chronic pain

Obesity-induced diabetes, hypertension, joint pain, and congestive heart failure

Mental health/affective disorders (e.g. autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression)

Neurological ramifications of disease states

Robotics, sensory and motor prostheses

Terrorism- neurotoxins, neuroimmunology

Baby boomer diseases

Arthritis

Aging

Deafness

Age-and diabetes related blindness, e.g. macular degeneration, glaucoma

Parkinson’s Disease

Alzheimer’s Disease

Diffuse Lewy Body Syndrome

Other Dementias

  • NEUROSCIENCE IS IMPROVING EDUCATION AND MINORITY PARTICIPATION

Neuroscience faculty are actively involved in efforts to improve science education at the K-12 level via initiatives coordinated by the CBN. GSU neuroscience educators have established partnerships with the Decatur School System and the DeKalbCountySchool system for a series of programs involving teachers and students, including teacher training workshops, school visits, and a lending library of science education materials made available to classroom teachers. Integrated into these teacher and classroom-oriented activities are summer programs for students, including the ION (Institute on Neuroscience) program for high school students in which the students gain formal mentoring and an opportunity to work in neuroscience labs at GSU and other Atlanta universities and colleges, and Summer Brain Camps, summer science camps for middle school students which both provide science experiences for the students during which GSU science faculty and public school teachers who have completed one of the teacher training workshops work together. GSU neuroscience educators also hold a two day Neuroscience Expo at the Atlanta Zoo, the first day of which students from a Decatur middle school are exposed to neuroscience-related activities, while on the second day the Expo is open to all children and their parents who visit the Zoo. School-oriented programs are focused on schools with high proportions of underrepresented minorities and disadvantaged students. Summer programs and other student-oriented activities have >80% minority student participation. The Georgia Biomedical Partnership recognized the CBN for its outstanding work in education and community outreach with its 2006 Biomedical Community Award. Neuroscience faculty members lead the CBN’s undergraduate education initiatives as well. The nationally recognized BRAIN program for undergraduates is held each year, bringing in 22 undergraduates from Atlanta institutions and across the nation for neuroscience research fellowships to gain hands-on research experience at GSU and other Atlanta universities and colleges while attending lectures and seminars on neuroscience topics and professional skills. Historically, >75% of the participants have been women and >60% underrepresented minorities. A similar academic year program, CBNuf, is currently being tested, targeted specifically at minority undergraduates at SpelmanCollege, MorehouseCollege, and ClarkAtlantaUniversity. Neuroscience faculty have established strong relationships with these Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Atlanta. Career Days and Research Days at SpelmanCollege, MorehouseCollege, and ClarkAtlantaUniversity are attended by neuroscience faculty and CBN staff to provide information about graduate school opportunities, and several students from these institutions have worked in GSU neuroscience labs and/or enrolled in its graduate programs. In recognition of his work with these institutions, CBN Directorand GSU neuroscience faculty member Dr. Elliott Albers was named Mentor of the Year by The Center for Biomedical and Behavioral Research at SpelmanCollege in 2006. Improvements in education extend to the professional level as well. There is enhancement of graduate and research programs through the CBN Graduate Scholars Program (providing doctoral students with an interest in behavioral Neuroscience the opportunity to gain a broader breadth of experience by working in a collaborative research environment) and a CBN Post-Doctoral Fellows program.

  • NEUROSCIENCE PROMOTES RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

GSU has important resources for supporting students in the emerging field of neuromics. We have the first Center for Neuromics ( neuromics) in the nation, which promotes research aimed at understanding the complex interactions of neurons in the brain. Through seed funding from the Brains & Behavior program, we have initiated a collaborative project between biologists and computer scientists to build NeuronBank, a knowledgebase of neuronal circuitry, which has now received NIH funding. The Center for Neuromics sponsors seminars and provides student travel and research awards.

Some of our faculty are involved with the Allen Brain Project:

( This is a program for developing cutting-edge bioinformatics type tools to catalog brain areas, nerve cells and their interconnections, and the genes involved in setting up and maintaining brain function. This information will be of great use in basic research to understand the workings of the brain, in drug development for neurological diseases, in neurosurgical innovations and gene therapy. These endeavors are expected to produce translational research that would lead to patentable innovations.

  • NEUROSCIENCE IS PROFITABLE FORGEORGIASTATEUNIVERSITY

Across the last five years, the average annual federal funding for Neuroscience at GSU has been $5,685,160, a sizable percentage of all NIH/NSF funding at our institution. With the help of more and even higher quality graduate students, as well as the inevitable increase in faculty that occurs with growing highly successful programs, we can do better, largely because Neuroscience research is a unifying theme across many of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers. The NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research was launched in 2004 with 15 participating Institutes and Centers to provide a framework for coordinating research, and developing tools and resources which are broadly useful for advancing Neuroscience research ( To this end, the NIH is generating a series of focused initiatives designed to catalyze Neuroscience research. In fiscal years 2005 and 2006, the Blueprint supported the creation and distribution of resources that are of broad utility to the entire Neuroscience community. In fiscal years 2007-2009, the NIH Blueprint plans to address three specific, cross-cutting themes: neurodegeneration, neurodevelopment, and neuronal plasticity, respectively. Note that the Neuroscience-related faculty members at GSU are particularly strong in these areas, and future hires will hopefully expand this expertise.