Medical Neuroscience

Mental, neurological and substance abuse disorders account for a large proportion of the disease burden in the Western world. It is estimated that more than 220 million people suffer from neurological disorders such as stroke, Alzheimers disease or Parkinsons disease in Europe. In addition, the lifelong risk of developing psychiatric diseases (including drug abuse) is supposed to be about 40% in the European population. It is the aim of the medical neuroscience field to understand brain function in healthy and diseased states with the final goal of developing improved treatment strategies for neurological or mental disorders. Modern medical neuroscience is multi-disciplinary and involves a broad spectrum of fields including biochemistry, molecular neurobiology, neurophysiology, neuropharmacology, neuroimmunology, clinical neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry and neurology. Within the doctoral programme Medical Neurosciences at the Medical University Vienna, 16 leading researchers from ten different (sub)disciplines joined forces to educate young scientists as medical neuroscientists. PhD students will be integrated into a research team and perform work dedicated to answering novel scientific questions. Sixteen projects will be pursued during the course of this programme each of which shall contribute to different aspects of current major questions in medical neuroscience: i) what are the molecular, cellular and network mechanisms underlying normal brain function, ii) what are the mechanisms underlying mental and neurological disorders, iii) how can we identify novel biomarkers in order to improve diagnosis of mental or neurological disorders and, iv) to develop novel therapeutic strategies for these disorders. The research work will take place at different laboratories at the Medical University of Vienna and will use high-end technology and state- of-the-art methodology. Next to laboratory-based research, this programme provides the theoretical backbone for up-to-date neuroscience via mandatory lectures and practical courses focused on cutting-edge findings and techniques in the field of medical Neuroscience. Students are trained to present, discuss, and defend their research projects. Next to neuroscience-specific training, participation in the courses Ethics and Good Scientific Practice and Project Management and Intellectual Property Rights is mandatory. In addition, students can select from a pool of courses (e.g. Biostatistics, Clinical Studies,) in order to complement their hard-skills. This project will enable us to join the forces of the most productive research teams of the Medical Neuroscience Cluster, which will solidify the position of the MedUni Vienna as a top address for researchers in the field. This PhD programme will particularly strengthen the Cluster, intensify existing and stimulate new co-operations and will initiate further joint research. Furthermore, this programme will allow young students to become part of the next generation of top-educated neuroscientists with the appropriate skills and qualifications to meet future challenges.

This was DocFunds DOC 33-B27 - Medical Neuroscience, 2018- 2023: A generously funded program for the training of doctoral candidates at the MedUni Vienna, the funds provided by the FWF were doubled by the Medical University Vienna. This made it possible to launch 16 PhD projects under the supervision of excellent principal investigators from a broad spectrum of neurosciences: From Departments/ Institutes of Neurology, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Pharmacology, Neurophysiology, Neuroimmunology, Molecular Neurosciences, Neurophysiology and Neuropharmacology, Pathobiology of the Nervous System, Receptor Signaling and Trafficking, and Cognitive Neurobiology. Award winning and highly successful students worked on the role of astrocyte cells in nociception and pain, generated new lead molecules to treat rare diseases with novel treatment paradigms, examined the molecular fingerprints of new psychoactive drugs, generated highly refined molecular maps of the human brain cortex, deciphered the secret rules of cell differentiation in the development of the prenatal brain or in cancer - all for the future benefit of neuropsychiatric patients suffering from diseases as diverse as depression, rare metabolic disorders or autoimmune and inflammatory diseases of the brain or the eyes. This seed funding made it possible to combine technological platforms from contributing laboratories and their collaboration networks into a "technological superpower", which included single cell sequencing, brain imaging, electrophysiology at the cutting edge, molecular studies on highly precious samples from human donors and many more. The long- lasting success of this project comprises top tier publications, and a permanent change of an established PhD program in the neurosciences into a more translationally oriented program in the medical neurosciences - in line with the medical neuroscience cluster, as one of the five main pillars of research at the Medical University Vienna. Only this cooperative PhD medical neuroscience program allowed young students to become part of the next generation of top-educated neuroscientists with the appropriate skills and qualifications to meet future challenges in medical neuroscience. We thank the FWF and the Medical university of Vienna and all involved individuals who made our project a huge success! We continue our work together in order to educate the future leaders of neurosciences, who study the most complex organ in the known universe.