The past two decades have witnessed spectacular conceptual and methodological advances in the biomedical/biobehavioral sciences, and especially in neuroscience. Developments in molecular biology, developmental and cell biology, neuroimaging, computer modeling, and the cognitive sciences have offered unprecedented insights to fundamental problems in the neurosciences. Significant steps are now being taken toward elucidating genetic and environmental disease mechanisms. New areas for fruitful investigation are developing, and scientists from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines meet at the frontiers.

The neuroscience community is poised for a quantum leap in the understanding of the biological substrates of phenomena that have provoked philosophical and scientific inquiry for thousands of years, including language, memory, emotional processing, social conduct, personality, decision-making, planning and judgment.

Neuroscience Research Strength at the University of Iowa:

  • Neuroscience Institute - located in the start-of the art Pappajohn Biomedical Discovery Building, focuses on four disease/problem areas: epilepsy, mood and anxiety disorders, neurodegenerative disease, and brain/nervous system trauma.
  • Iowa Neurological Patient Registry - a collection of 525 active members with damage to a specific brain region.
  • Aging Mind and Brain Initiative - a highly multidisciplinary, multidimensional topic, spanning the life sciences, behavioral sciences, social sciences, engineering, medical sciences, human factors, biostatistics, ethics, law, and others.

University of Iowa Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neuroscience Outcome Data

 

Top: 10x of a drosophila brain stained for the pigment dispersing factor (PDF) positive neurons which regulate circadian rhythm. Bottom: 40x close up on the branching and boutons of the PDF positive neurons in both the optic lobes. Image by Neuroscience student Arianna Lark.