The Department of Psychiatry Announces a New Bioengineering in Psychiatry Predoctoral Training Program
The Department of Psychiatry is pleased to announce a new, interdisciplinary predoctoral training program, supported by the National Institute of Mental Health. The Bioengineering in Psychiatry Training Program will prepare students with backgrounds in engineering and other quantitative sciences for careers in mental health research.
The program, which capitalizes on existing University of Pittsburgh research programs that unify these two fields, provides bioengineering graduate students with training in psychiatry research and access to the clinical presentation and treatment of psychiatric disorders. Three integrated focus areas—neuroimaging, neurostimulation and neural engineering—are widely used in mental health research on mood, anxiety and psychotic disorders, as well as suicide and cognitive impairment, conducted by Department of Psychiatry faculty members. “This T32 training program will address the increasing need for engineering expertise in these key areas of mental health research,” said Dr. David Lewis, Chair of the Department of Psychiatry.
Howard Aizenstein, MD, PhD (Charles F. Reynolds III and Ellen G. Detlefsen Endowed Chair in Geriatric Psychiatry and Professor of Bioengineering and Clinical and Translational Science) and Tamer S. Ibrahim, PhD (Associate Professor of Bioengineering, Radiology, and Psychiatry) are co-principal investigators of the program.
Dr. Aizenstein said, “There's been a huge increase in the application of engineering and quantitative science within Psychiatric research. We're so excited to be part of training a new generation of interdisciplinary scientists to help lead these efforts.”