Nueroscience
Neuroscience in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M University spans multiple disciplines and subject areas, including: 1) the fetal basis of adult neurological disorders, 2) neurotoxicology, 3) infectious diseases in the nervous system, 4) neuroendocrinology, 5) neurooncology and 6) neuroimmunology.
Neuroscience research is being conducted in multiple departments of the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM), the College of Science, the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Engineering, and the College of Architecture, as well as in the Texas A&M Health Science Center. CVM neuroscientists collaborate extensively with these scientists to study brain imaging, addiction and behavior, neurodegenerative diseases, recovery of function, learning, and circadian rhythms.
The Texas A&M University Interdisciplinary Faculty of Neuroscience (IFN) was officially approved in 2001 and is currently developing a graduate training program in Neuroscience. The IFN and CVM neuroscientists form a cohesive working group of basic scientists and clinicians. This strong base of research scientists and clinicians forms an excellent starting point to build a nationally recognized research and training program in neuroscience. CVM neuroscientists are in an excellent position to enhance the teaching program at TAMU through close interactions between clinical and basic science faculty.
We also continue to increase our ability to diagnose and treat neurological disorders in domestic and companion animals. The Texas Veterinary Medical Center's referral hospital sees over 800 neurology cases/year and the neurology service is the most active service in the teaching hospital. The pet population continues to provide an ever-increasing impact to the overall human population. A number of neurodegenerative disorders in dogs and cats and other domestic animal species serve as animal models for similar human neurologic disorders. Therefore, neuroscience is extremely important to both humans and animals and neuroscience research is an ever-increasing component of Texas A&M University's research, teaching and service missions.
We currently have nine CVM faculty who are clinical and/or basic research neuroscientists. Publications by these nine neuroscientists for the past five years number 118. Many of these publications are highly collaborative between the CVM neuroscience faculty and faculty in the interdisciplinary programs in toxicology, reproductive biology, and virology. In the past five years grant dollars for the CVM neuroscience faculty totaled $8.5 million in funding from federal funding agencies including NIH, USDA and NSF or from private foundations such as the Morris Animal Foundation. Funding also has been garnered through the TAMU NIEHS Center for Environmental and Rural health (CERH) for neuroscience-related research that is carried out in neurotoxicology. The funded proposals also demonstrate the highly integrative and collaborative nature of the neuroscience research being conducted at the College of Veterinary Medicine.Links
• Neurology, Neuroradiology - http://www.cvm.tamu.edu/vsam/
