DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Children's Hospital Boston Neurological Sciences Academic Development Award will be carried out in the Longwood Medical Area, a physically and intellectually unified area composed of Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health. Our long-term goal will be to facilitate and accelerate the development of independent physician scientists by providing research training experiences with outstanding research mentors who are committed to helping them achieve independent research faculty status by the end of their training. We will build on the strong track record of Neurology training in the Longwood area that has fostered the development of academic physician-scientists since the inception of the specialty. We intend to recruit a total of four scholars from an internal applicant pool of more than 50 child neurology and neurodevelopment disabilities residents and subspecialty neurology clinical fellows. Applications will also be accepted from qualified trainees from other institutions. An outstanding group of 54 mentors will offer remarkable depth and breadth to NSADA scholars in molecular, cellular and systems/integrative neurobiology as well as clinical and translational research. Clinical investigators will be linked not only to research mentors but also to a wealth of clinical centers and programs focused on a wide variety of neurological and neurogenetic disorders. Research development programs tailored to individual backgrounds and educational histories will be crafted for each NSADA scholar by an internal Steering Committee, an external Advisory Committee and special Mentoring Committees that will be formed for each resident. All NSADA programs will include major components of 1) advice and guidance; 2) formal course work, including formal training in research ethics and the responsible conduct of research; 3) research experience with one or more strong and committed mentors; 4) career planning assistance and monitoring and evaluation of progress. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: It is essential that basic, clinical and translational scientists work together to determine the underlying mechanisms of disease and to implement new therapies for devastating neurological disorders. By pairing residents drawn from the largest neurology training program in the world with leading scientists from five adjacent institutions who are performing cutting edge, NIH-supported research of the highest quality, the Children's Hospital Boston NSADA program will train academic neurologists to develop the skills needed to devise clinically relevant, scientifically sound research programs that will ultimately establis them as independent, NIH-funded investigators who drive the specialty forward.

It is essential that basic, clinical and translational scientists work together to determine the underlying mechanisms of disease and to implement new therapies for devastating neurological disorders. By pairing residents drawn from the largest neurology training program in the world with leading scientists from five adjacent institutions who are performing cutting edge, NIH-supported research of the highest quality, the Children's Hospital Boston NSADA program will train academic neurologists to develop the skills needed to devise clinically relevant, scientifically sound research programs that will ultimately establis them as independent, NIH-funded investigators who drive the specialty forward.