Research Development Track

Physician-scientists occupy a critical niche in the translation of basic science findings into new clinical treatments. Within the field of neurology physician-scientists, as basic or clinical scientists, have been at the forefront of many discoveries, including developing new models of human disease, developing new clinical treatments for Parkinson's disease, epilepsy and stroke and identifying novel genetic signatures of brain tumors, glial progenitors and neural stem cells that may facilitate new therapies. UCLA Neurology has recognized our responsibility as a leading academic department to contribute to the scientific future by participation in the NIH-funded neurology residency research track, also known as the UCLA Neuroscience Physician-Scientist Training Program sponsored by NINDS through the UE5 funding mechanism.

The goal of the neurology research track is to train neurology residents in either basic or clinical science research through direct investigative study, oral and written scientific presentation and intensive mentored career development. The structure of the training program incorporates mentoring, focused time on oral and written presentations, with a culmination in the production of a career development (K series) grant in the final year of the post-residency fellowship for each trainee. The program provides 6 months of consecutive research time in PGY4, and then an additional 24 months of funded research time that can be applied to a post-residency fellowship. Internal applications for this program are accepted in mid-August each year. Competitive applications that achieve internal review committee approval will then be selected to apply to the NIH/NINDS. The NIH/NINDS will fund applicants based upon the merits of each submission as part of a national review.

We're pleased to share the work and successes of past NINDS UE5 residents:

In the past three years, multiple residents have successfully received NINDS UE5 funding including: Dr. John Thompson, Dr. Ramita Karra, Dr. Tirth Patel, Dr. Phat Huynh, and Dr. Brian Hickman
Multiple former Research Development Track residents are now faculty members with their own labs in UCLA Neurology: Dr. Ahmet Arac, Dr. William Zeiger, Dr. Timothy Chang, Dr. Kathryn Cross, Dr. Jessica Rexach, and Dr. Ranmal Samarasinghe.
From time to time, we profile a UCLA Neurology lab to share with our patients, families and the academic community. Three past UE5 residents, Dr. Rexach, Dr. Hinman and Dr. Arac, have been profiled.