PROJECT SUMMARY
Brain diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, glioma, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, stroke and amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis devastate the lives of millions of patients and their families. Despite decades of research
costing billions of dollars, these and other brain diseases still lack accurate diagnostic tools, effective disease-
modifying therapies, adequate symptomatic managements, or even well-defined mechanistic causes. These
failures stand out particularly in light of incredible advances in basic scientific knowledge. Thus, there is a
critical need for clinicians to be involved in basic research on human brain disease since they are well suited to
identify new approaches. The University of Iowa Clinical Neuroscientist Training Program (CNS-TP) is
designed as an efficient pathway to train outstanding neurology, neurosurgery and neuropathology residents in
basic research, with the goal of increasing the percentage of trainees who continue in a long career as
productive clinician-scientists.