
NIH T32 Training Grants in Neuroscience at Rutgers

Launched in May 2023 with funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the TARP is dedicated to cultivating the next generation of addiction neuroscience researchers. TARP provides rigorous and comprehensive training to 3 graduate and 3 postdoctoral trainees annually, unifying substance use disorder research at Rutgers’ Piscataway/New Brunswick campuses by leveraging the university’s strengths in both basic science and human imaging research. Trainees gain exposure to a broad range of expertise through faculty mentors, representing areas such as epigenetics and human imaging, and supported by over $10 million in active research funding.

Four postdoctoral lines to provide training in the etiology and consequences of alcohol involvement across the lifespan. Faculty mentors contribute expertise in course of alcohol use across the lifespan, the underlying biological mechanisms (e.g., stress hormones, genetics, neurobiological) and psychosocial mechanisms (e.g., psychological, inter-personal, environmental), and ensuing consequences. The training program consists of a two-year sequence of hands-on mentored research as well didactic experiences and individually tailored professional development activities.

The aims of the program are to: 1) provide a continuum of comprehensive training that advances translational neuroscience research towards therapeutic developments; 2) expand the pipeline of translational neuroscience researchers within a diverse cohort of trainees; and 3) leverage Rutgers’ strengths in neuroscience drug discovery and development to provide broad experiences to trainees in this program. Trainees will learn from neurologists and trialists, and actively engage in clinical trials. The training period for each participant is two years.

The Joint Graduate Program in Toxicology (JGPT) is an interdepartmental training program in mechanistic toxicology at Rutgers University. The mission is to provide talented and motivated predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees with rigorous didactic and laboratory training in contemporary mechanistic toxicology and in-depth expertise in their individual field of research.