The field of Neuroscience is growing at an exponential pace. Neuroscientists are now developing an increasingly sophisticated set of tools to explore the basic functions of nervous systems of such diverse animals as honey bees, rats, birds and humans. It is fascinating that all of these nervous systems work on the same basic set of molecular and cellular principles. Moreover, by bringing together people who perform such basic, fundamental research with researchers and physicians who work with human patients in clinical settings, there now exists as never before the possibility to translate findings from basic research into treatments that will improve the human condition.

It is with this ‘translational' objective in mind that we are putting in place a new Neuroscience Interdisciplinary Degree Program at Arizona State University in collaboration with the Barrow Neurological Institute and other Clinical Partners across the greater Phoenix area. We seek to break the traditional institutional and disciplinary boundaries between basic and clinical research. Over 100 participating faculty are in several schools and departments at ASU as well as distributed among our clinical partners. Students will have the opportunity to develop a program of study and research that combines the expertise of several different faculty and programs across these institutions.

To help communicate the goals and possibilities of our program, we have begun a Podcast program on our website under ‘Resources'. We will be adding approximately two interviews per month with researchers and physicians in our program. You will be able to listen to them and learn about cutting edge research and what drives the people in our program.

We are excited about the mission we have defined for our program, and to the participation of many researchers, clinicians and medical physicians throughout the greater Phoenix area.

We encourage you to contact us if you would like more information about our program.

Sincerely,

Brian H. Smith
Professor
School of Life Sciences