A
broad spectrum of Neuroscience research opportunities is available at
Admissions Requirements
Applicants are expected to have
an undergraduate or advanced degree in one of the basic or applied sciences,
such as biochemistry, biology, human medicine, immunobiology, neuroscience,
physiology, pharmacology, psychology, veterinary medicine, or zoology. Appropriate undergraduate coursework includes
mathematics, chemistry, physics, and biological science.
Application Procedures
The
Neuroscience Program
2018 Molecular
50011-3260
An online application can also be
found at Iowa State University Neuroscience Program’s website: http://www.neuroscience.iastate.edu/
Financial Support
Graduate
Assistantships
Financial support is available in
the form of research assistantships sponsored by the neuroscience program and
research grants and teaching assistantships sponsored by departments affiliated
with the program. In addition, students
interested in signal transduction may be eligible for research assistantships
and postdoctoral fellowships sponsored by a National Science Foundation
extramural training grant. Recipients of
assistantships are assessed tuition fees at the resident rate. Scholarship credit covering one-half of the
in-state tuition is given to all students on a 20-hour assistantship.
PACE
Awards
The
Information
about other types of financial assistance available to graduate students can be
obtained from the
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~fin_aid_info/
Neuroscience Curriculum
The program emphasizes
interdisciplinary education with specialization appropriate to the student’s
interests. The master’s degree requires
30 credit hours and the doctoral degree requires 72 credit hours. The
Required
Courses
Students not meeting specified
prerequisites may seek permission from the instructor to enroll.
NEURO 556. Neurobiology. 3-4
Credits. Prerequisites: Zool 355
of Psych 310; or equivalent background, physics recommended. Integration, coding,
plasticity, and development in nervous systems.
NEURO 557. Advanced
Neuroscience Techniques. 2 Credits. Prerequisites: NEURO 556. Research methods and
techniques; exercises and/or demonstrations representing individual faculty
specialties.
NEURO 660. Current
Topics in Neurobiology and Behavior.
2-3 Credits. May be taken
more than once. Prerequisites:
permission of instructor. Topics may
include communication, hormones and behavior, neural integration, developmental
neurobiology, neuroanatomy and ultrastructure, sensory biology, social
behavior, techniques in neurobiology and behavior.
NEURO 690. Journal
Club in Neuroscience. 1 Credit. Prerequisites: NEURO 556. Students are required to attend and make at
least one presentation at a weekly journal club focusing on current topics.
NEURO 696. Neuroscience
Seminar.
1 Credit.
Students are required to be enrolled in this course each semester while
in the Neuroscience Program.
Prerequisites: NEURO 556. Presentations and discussion of research by students, faculty and
visiting scholars.
NEURO 699. Research.
Credits vary.
BBMB 404. Biochemistry.
3 Credits. Prerequisites: Chemistry of amino
acids, proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins, and nucleotides: enzymology;
metabolism of carbohydrates and lipids.
STAT 401. Statistical
Methods for Research Workers. 4 Credits. Prerequisites: STAT 101. 104,
201, or 227. Methods
of analyzing and interpreting experimental and survey data.
Six
Credits From The Following Additional Courses:
ComS 474. Elements
of Neural Computation. 3 Credits. Prerequisites: Math 165 & ComS 228 or permission of
instructor. Mathematical
and computational models of neurons and networks of neurons. Applications to Artificial
Intelligence and cognitive and Neural Modeling.
E E 545. Artificial
Neural Networks.
3 Credits.
Prerequisites: 524. Introduction to the fundamentals of artificial neural networks
(ANNs). Theory
as well as practical implementation of networks. Topics include uses of ANNs to biological
neurons, activation functions, and architectures, supervised and unsupervised
learning. Networks investigated typically
include single and mutilayer perceptrons, backpropagaton, learning algorithm,
stochastic-based learning, genetic algorithms, radial basis networks, Hopfield
and Hamming networks and other associative networks, Kohonen’s networks, morphological
neural networks.
PSYCH
517. Psychopharmacology. 3 Credits. Prerequisites: PSYCH 315, or permission of
instructor. Fundamentals
of drug-behavior interactions with emphasis on psychoactive drugs and their use
in experimental, therapeutic, and social settings.
PSYCH
519. Cognitive
Neuropsychology.
3 Credits.
Prerequisites: Permission of instructor.
Psychological models and related neurological
substrates underlying cognition in normal and brain-damaged patients. Topics include spatial perception, object and
face recognition, voluntary motor control, language processing, memory, and
problem solving.
BMS 537. Neurobiology.
3 Credits. Prerequisites: 10 credits in
biological sciences and permission of instructor. Neurobiology of domestic
animals.
BMS 511. Functional
Neuroanatomy and Morphology of Neurotransmitter Pathways. 4 Credits. Prerequisites: 10 credits in biological
sciences, permission of instructor. Basic organizational schemes of the mammalian brain including
cytoarchitecture, chemoarchitecture, and connectivity of different regions of
the nervous system.
BMS 549. Advanced
Vertebrate Physiology. 4 Credits. Prerequisites: Zool 355; credit or enrollment
in BBMB 404 or 420. Neurophysiology,
sensory systems, muscle, neurendocrinology, and endocrinology.
BMS 565. Physiology and Pharmacology of Autonomic
Nervous System.
2 Credits.
Alternate Springs. Prerequisites: BMS 549, 552 or permission of
instructor. Release of
neurotransmitters and their regulation; control and regulation of autonomic
functions; mechanisms of action of adrenergic and cholinergic receptors.
TOX 555. Neurobehavioral Toxicology. 3 Credits.
Zool 540. Signal Transduction.
3 Credits. Prerequisites: Zool 528, BBMB
404. Mechanisms and
components of cellular signal transduction including receptors, G-proteins, second
messengers, protein phosphorylation, other post-translational protein
modifications, and transcriptional regulation.
Plus 48
Credits of Research and Electives.
Research Facilities
A wide variety of
university-based support facilities and services supplement individual
investigator’s research laboratories.
These state-of-the-art biotechnology centers include:
§
An image analysis facility
§
A scanning electron microscope
and elemental analysis facilities
§
A nucleic acid facility for
automated nucleic acid synthesis and sequencing
§
A hybridoma service for
monoclonal antibody production and application
§
A protein facility for amino acid
analysis, peptide synthesis, and sequencing
§
A cell facility for flow cyometry
and cell sorting
§
Career Opportunities
Many graduates of the
Neuroscience Program at
Neuroscience Faculty
Neuroscience Faculty is listed according to their home
departments.
Mechanisms
regulating relaxin and progesterone secretion and their effects; effects of
antiprogesterone; neuroendocrine mechanisms regulating growth and reproduction
in farm animals.
Colin Scanes
Properties
and functions of contractile and cytoskeletal proteins and filaments in
skeletal, smooth, and cardiac muscle; interactions between contractile and
cytoskeletal components and with their respective anchoring sites.
Signal transduction during
cellular differentiation, growth and oncogenesis; molecular mechanisms by which
GTP-binding proteins and tyrosine kinases interact with membranes; covalent
modification of proteins with lipids.
Richard Robson
Investigating
biochemistry, molecular biology, structure and function of specific
myofibrillar and other cytoskeletal proteins of skeletal, heart and smooth
muscle cells.
Role of Apoptosis and Cell Death in Neurodegenerative
disorders.
Understanding cellular/molecular mechanisms
underlying neuronal degeneration
The brain
mechanisms of learning, memory and goal-oriented behaviors. This research
uses combination of behavioral, neuropharmacological and neuroanatomical
methods, as well as a state of the art technique of a large-scale recording of
neuronal activity during learning.
Mechanism
of function of the neuromuscular systems of parasitic worms.
Development and
differentiation of neural progenitors and neural stem cells derived from the
retina and the brain.
Adrenergic
receptors and neuroendocrine interactions. http://
Research
interests are mechanisms controlling the cellular signaling in glia-neuron
interactions, in growth hormone secretion and in neural stem cells
differentiation.
Parkinson’s
disease and its related movement disorders.
GABAergic synapses
role in generating major sleep rhythm and role of disruption of the system in
seizures.
Physiology
and pharmacology of nematode ion-channels.
Chemical
synaptic transmission in the mammalian spinal cord.
Interactions between neurons
and glial cells are being studied in tissue culture. Current focus is on the role of these cells
in the development and regeneration of the central nervous system; Alzheimer’s
disease; possible neuroimmune interactions.
Our
current research interest is to develop non-invasive biocompatible nanoprobes
for chemical sensing of intercellular neurochemical communications with
nanoscale spatial resolution, and for control of cellular behavior at the
macroscopic level.
Developing
micro and nanopatterned polymeric substrates with chemical, physical and
biological guidance cues for promoting peripheral and optic nerve regeneration.
Computational approaches to
understanding the structure, function, behavior, adaptation, and evolution of
cognitive systems (both natural and artificial with particular emphasis on
memory and learning).
Development
of sex pheromones, host volatiles, and other attractants for use against
agricultural and urban insect pests. Neuroethological studies of
insects to understand fundamental processes of olfaction, orientation to odors,
and to engineer tissue-based, hybrid olfactory biosensors.
How
the brain controls movement, focusing on the contribution of the basal ganglia
and cerebellum to the learning, planning and online control of sequential
tasks, such as rapid aiming, reach to grasp and finger tapping.
Research in the field of
psychoneuroimmunology directed toward the understanding how various stressors
(physical, psychological, and interoceptive) affect the immune system.
Testing and developing
theories of the processes by which humans recognize visual patterns such as
letters, objectives, and faces.
Neural
correlates of rapid escape behavior in invertebrates; regeneration and
plasticity of reflex pathways; neurotoxicology.
Study of
the general principles underlying the assembly and function of simple nervous
systems.
Regulation of nuclear
structure and function during cell division; developmental neurogenetics;
molecular and functional characterization of neural antigens involved in axon
guidance.
Developmental
neurobiology, stem cell biology, stem cell transplants
as a strategy for CNS rescue and repair, development and plasticity of
vertebrate visual systems.
Understanding
the role of intracellular ion activities during cellular activation.
Vice Provost of Research.
Contact Information
Phone Number
Toll
Free: 1-866-219-9123
Office: 1-515-294-7252
Address
2018 Molecular
Email Address
idgp@iastate.edu
Neuroscience Program’s Website
http://www.neuroscience.iastate.edu/
Graduate College Website
http://www.grad-college.iastate.edu