Introduction
Aaron Cecala
There’s a great deal of interaction between students from the various basic science and clinical departments at the UR Medical Center. This makes for an awesome training environment in which research on particular diseases (e.g. epilepsy or Parkinson’s) are often discussed regularly between graduate students, research faculty, and clinicians in the same room. This type of environment has allowed me to see how my basic science research might be translated from the bench to the clinic in order to better manage debilitating neurological diseases.
The Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy plays a central role in graduate education in the neural sciences at the University of Rochester. Graduate Education in the Biomedical Sciences (GEBS) is organized into interest areas, or Clusters, one of which is Neuroscience>. The Cluster provides a unified admissions process as well as a first year core curriculum that is shared primarily by the Graduate Program in Neurobiology & Anatomy and the Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Neuroscience (IGPN). Core courses are also utilized by other degree-granting programs that hold neuroscience among their key missions.
The Cluster further provides a general forum for the extended neuroscience community that encompasses all students working on the nervous system across multiple PhD programs. This forum includes an Annual Neuroscience Retreat, the Neuroscience Colloquium, and a Calendar of Events and communication network that binds the community of neuroscientists. An overview (including application information) can be accessed at Graduate Studies in Neuroscience, while a broad perspective on the neuroscience community at the University is outlined at Neuroscience at Rochester.
NBA Program Overview
The PhD Program in Neurobiology and Anatomy is particularly well-suited to students in the MD/PhD program and to PhD candidates interested in the characteristics of, and mechanisms underlying, function and dysfunction of the nervous system. The curriculum establishes a firm foundation in fundamental neuroscience and then extends into human neurobiology and disorders of the nervous system within the medical school curriculum. The program is specifically directed toward preparation for academic careers within a medical school setting, where teaching in medical and graduate school curricula comprises a strong component of faculty mission, and where research interests include systems, integrative, and translational/clinical attributes of neural science.
Areas of research emphasis within the Department cover a broad spectrum:
- sensory, motor and integrative systems
- cognition and perception
- cell signaling and transmission
- development and aging
- neurobiology of disease
- learning and plasticity
- neuro-engineering, and computational neurobiology
Modern state-of-the-art instrumentation and methodologies are available to facilitate the study of the nervous system across disciplines and at different levels of inquiry, both within laboratories and across a set of departmental and institutional research cores.
Graduate students are encouraged to take advantage of the multidisciplinary environment provided by NBA faculty in basic and clinical disciplines to achieve their research goals. Similarly, numerous collaborative programs offer opportunities across departments, bridging the Medical Center with the adjacent College campus. For PhD and MD-PhD candidates, this translates into a highly attractive environment leading toward careers as scientist/educators and clinician/scientists of the future.
In addition to graduate programs, a variety of post-doctoral training opportunities exist within the Department's many active laboratories. Interdisciplinary and inter-laboratory collaborative initiatives are encouraged. The Departments of Neurobiology & Anatomy and Neurology also offer the Post-Graduate Medical Scientist Training Program in Medical Neurobiology-a unique program that combines a Neurology residency with a post-doctoral research fellowship in neurobiology.
Financial Support
Sally Duarte
You really can’t beat the quality of life for graduate students in Rochester. The city is large enough that it boasts great culture and recreation, yet the cost of living is exceptionally low. Even on a grad student’s salary, you can afford to live in a nice place, have a car and enjoy an evening out.
Stipend and tuition:
All Ph.D. candidates are awarded Fellowships that provide stipend and full tuition, as well as individual health insurance coverage, as long as they are making satisfactory progress toward their degree and are in compliance with University and Program academic requirements. Stipends are competitive with those of other basic and biomedical graduate programs in the United States. Candidates with outstanding undergraduate records are also eligible for additional stipend support from University fellowships awarded on a competitive basis. The Program currently supports students on a variety of training grants. Students are strongly encouraged to obtain individual training fellowships from the NIH to support their thesis research.
Development Scholarship:
Students entering the NBA Graduate Program (year 2) receive a discretionary fund for use in covering educational costs (e.g. books, meeting costs, PC).