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Training Program in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Program Overview
The Training Program in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (NDD T32) is intended for both physicians with clinical training in pediatrics, neurology, neuropathology or a related field, and doctoral-level researchers who have done neuroscience (or related) research and wish to apply their expertise to the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities.
While trainees devote most of their time to research activities in an established research group, they also participate in activities designed to improve related skills and facilitate their advancement.
Development of Research Skills
Research training performed under the tutelage of a mentor(s) is the primary focus of all trainees in this program. The research project, developed collaboratively between trainees and their mentor(s), should address an issue of relevance to intellectual and developmental disabilities. The project can be basic science or translational research if it is hypothesis-driven. The research project should provide a learning vehicle for the trainee and complement other career development activities undertaken during the training experience. Trainees and their mentors are strongly encouraged to design projects that could provide a pathway to an independent research career for the trainee.
Development of Scientific Writing and Presentation Skills
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Neuroscience Grants Club
CHOP and Penn trainees working on any type of grant (e.g., postdoctoral fellowships, K awards, R grants, private foundation grants) submit their specific aims or full applications for review by senior faculty, junior investigators, and fellow trainees. Amelia J. Eisch, PhD, Eric D. Marsh, MD, PhD, or another senior faculty member, leads the meeting discussion. The program improves the grant success rate and provides an understanding of diverse topics. It also exposes trainees to a breadth of techniques that are used to study intellectual and developmental disabilities. Attendance is required for trainees of this T32.
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CHOP's GPS Workshop for Scientific Writing Skills
We encourage trainees in their second and third year on the NDD T32 to apply for CHOP's Grant Proposal Success (GPS) workshop. GPS helps trainees write an NIH Individual Fellowship, Career Development Award or equivalent application, and provides a community of peers that can provide supportive feedback.
GPS consists of five interactive sessions (February through April) during which Matthew Weitzman, PhD, guides trainees in developing key components of a fellowship application. Because GPS is not neuroscience-specific, participants learn to write for their non-neuroscience peers, which inevitably improves grant writing success. Attendance is optional for interested trainees of this T32.
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Neuroscience Chalk Talks to Practice Presentation Skills
All trainees present once a year and attend all sessions. Other neuroscience trainees (e.g., graduate students or non-NDD T32 postdoctoral fellows), junior faculty, or recruits to the NDD CHOP/Penn community give the remainder of the presentations. The diverse, brief, high-quality presentations include refreshments and create an informal, collegial atmosphere that encourages questions and interactions. Please refer to our research calendar for information on upcoming meetings. Attendance is required for trainees of this T32.
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Seminar Attendance
CHOP and the University of Pennsylvania offer several seminar series, including the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC) Seminar Series. Trainees are expected to attend the IDDRC Seminar Series and other CHOP and Penn seminar series as appropriate. Trainees will also be asked to suggest potential speakers each year.
Quantitative Literacy Improvement
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Quantitative Literacy in the Mentored Research Environment
One goal of this T32 is to improve each trainee's quantitative literacy in a way that augments mentored research training. Each trainee will engage with a faculty-level program statistician at the start of T32 support. At the T32 Onboarding meeting, the trainee, mentor, statistician, and co-directors will develop a shared vision for areas for improvement and potential future needs in statistical approaches and quantitative skills; in rare cases, this will include taking a statistics course. These stakeholders and the co-mentor then work together over the course of the trainee's time on the T32 to achieve this vision.
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Quantitative Literacy: New Quantitative Skills Workshop
The new Quantitative Skills Workshop (QSW) will feature a variety of interactive lectures with foundation lectures (September to October), trainee presentations (November to April), and a special topics lecture by invited experts (May). These sessions include modern approaches, policies, and perspectives relevant to quantitative literacy. Trainee presentations provide the opportunity to put knowledge into action by working with a statistician to present an idea for study design or walk through a sample data set analysis.
Responsible Conduct of Research
Responsible Conduct of Research
The NIH (NOT-OD-10-019) requires all trainees to participate in responsible conduct of research (RCR) training. CHOP requires that all trainees participate in the online Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) and complete two, four-hour, face-to-face RCR workshop sessions. These programs are to be completed at least once every four years. The Responsible Conduct of Research program at CHOP monitors RCR training completion via sign-in sheets for in-person sessions and direct tracking for the online CITI program. Additional research-specific training is completed before the initiation of the research project.
Meetings With External Advisory Board
Each year, we invite one member of the external advisory board to give an IDDRC seminar and spend an extra day on campus. Trainees supported by this training grant serve as hosts for this speaker during the day (individual meetings, lunch, and dinner).
Each year, we invite one member of the external advisory board to give an IDDRC seminar and spend an extra day on campus. Trainees supported by this training grant serve as hosts for this speaker during the day (individual meetings, lunch, and dinner).
Scientific Rigor and Reproducibility
Trainees have a variety of opportunities to engage in a culture of scientific rigor and reproducibility (SRR). CHOP facilities and resources that support SRR are widely publicized throughout the Research Institute on internal and external communications platforms.
CHOP Research Institute sponsors an annual responsible conduct of research presentation and the Office of Research Compliance sponsors a monthly Research Integrity in Practice seminar.
The Biostatistics and Data Management Core holds a virtual biostatistics walk-in clinic to assist researchers in designing experiments, analyzing and interpreting data, and presenting and disseminating results. Please refer to our research calendar for information on upcoming meetings.
The Electronic Research Notebook (ERN) program, a popular SSR resource, is provided to all CHOP Research Institute trainees and mentors. Researchers have free ERN access to the LabArchives software platform, which provides a modern, secure, cloud-based method of organizing and sharing their expansive lab data. LabArchives is an important component of the NDD T32's Quantitative Skills Workshop. LabArchives is quite popular in pharma and biotech as it has a stellar data management workflow which increases rigor and reproducibility.