Experimental Therapeutics Fellowship

NIH-Funded Two-Year Training Program for Fellows in Design and Conduct of Clinical Trials in Neurologic Diseases

• The University of Rochester’s Department of Neurology has maintained a continuously-funded NIH T32 (NS-07338) Postdoctoral Training Program in Experimental Therapeutics of Neurological Disease (ETND) Program since 1990.
• Graduates are leading authorities in the field of experimental therapeutics across academia, industry, and government who have contributed to hundreds of multicenter clinical trials, seven FDA-approvals, and numerous innovations to advance the field.  
• The program’s foundational principles value research integrity, rigor and reproducibility, participant safety, innovation, collaboration, diversity and inclusiveness, free exchange of information, promoting rapid transition to scientific independence and arming Trainees with in-depth knowledge of emerging trends in order to translate new discoveries into patient care.
• The program establishes world-class mentor teams that include a Mentor and a Biostatistics Mentor. The mentors represent a mix of faculty whose research cover a broad spectrum of neurological diseases, including adult and pediatric diseases and rare and common disorders.  
• Trainees participate in multiple research projects, at sequential stages of development, and acquire a full spectrum of skills as they develop their own research projects, framing testable scientific hypotheses, incorporating a rigorous study design, considering the demographics and epidemiology of the condition, developing the protocol for the study including data management and statistical analysis plans, securing protocol approval by Human Subjects Review Board, developing the study budget, and leading the effort to secure funding for the project. They may serve on the Steering Committee of a multi-center clinical trial, on a Data and Safety Monitoring Board, or as Adverse Event Medical Monitor.
• Additional fellows have been trained who have been supported by other sources, including federal grants, supplemental awards, institutional funds, specialty society grants, and foundation awards.

Learn more about the program