The leadership and faculty of the Duncan NRI are dedicated to provide excellent training to graduate students and postdoctoral trainees in the basic mechanisms of brain development and particularly the application of this knowledge in furthering an understanding of disorders of the developing nervous system. To this end, the following training opportunities have been created -
NRI Seminar Series
This is a monthly seminar series organized by Drs. Hyun Kyoung Lee and Mingshan Xue. The goal of this formal seminar series is to train advanced graduate students or postdoctoral trainees to present their research in front of a diverse audience. The speakers are nominated and introduced by their Duncan NRI faculty mentors. The scientific presentations also offer an excellent networking opportunity for faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows to interact with one another and have led to many fruitful scientific collaborations.
Developmental Brain Disorders Dinners
Another training opportunity for postdoctoral fellows at the Duncan NRI and for the Child Neurology residents and fellows training at Texas Children's Hospital is the Developmental Brain Disorders Dinners. The purpose of these meetings is to foster discussion and exchange of information between clinicians and scientists who are interested in developmental brain disorders. They offer faculty from various basic sciences and clinical departments at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital a platform to discuss the scientific and clinical challenges of specific developmental brain disorders or cutting-edge technologies.
Two or more discussion leaders, typically faculty of Baylor College of Medicine or Texas Children's Hospital, lead an informal discussion. Usually, a clinician begins the presentation by briefly describing the clinical features of the disorder. Then a research scientist reviews what is known about cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the condition. To promote an active and dynamic discussion among all the attendees, formal slide presentations are not used. Instead, the discussion leaders often use a whiteboard to clarify key points.
Through these discussions, scientists learn more about clinical challenges faced by neurologists who treat childhood neurological disorders while clinicians are brought up-to-date on the most recent scientific discoveries and new cutting-edge technologies. By bringing together clinicians and basic scientists from various disciplines, these seminars have led to several cross-disciplinary collaborations.
