Mission

The mission of the Loyola University's Neuroscience Graduate Program is to train outstanding neuroscientists who have high standards of both scientific excellence and scientific integrity. Neuroscience contributes directly to the university's overall mission of "knowledge in the service of humanity" by expanding scientific knowledge of the basic workings of the brain at both cellular and system levels and by promoting health-related research in areas such as brain cancer, substance abuse, Alzheimer's disease, and mental illness. Neuroscience faculty and students also help train health-care professionals of the future by their teaching work in the medical neuroscience course, their training of M.D.-Ph.D. and M.D.-M.S. physician-scientists, and their participation in the neurology, neurosurgery, or psychiatry clinical training programs.

The Neuroscience Ph.D. and M.D.-Ph.D. programs provide rigorous and comprehensive training that prepares students for a research and teaching career as a neuroscientist.

The Neuroscience Masters program provides training in the fundamentals of neuroscience for graduate students, physicians, and medical students seeking to deepen their knowledge of the field and an introduction to research questions and methodology.

Goals

Ph.D. Program

1. Students will acquire a broad, comprehensive knowledge of the entire field of neuroscience, including neuroanatomy, neurochemistry and molecular neurobiology, neuropharmacology, neurophysiology, and brain-behavior relations.
2. Students will acquire detailed, in-depth knowledge of their own particular area of research interest that will provide a solid theoretical base for their dissertation research.
3. Students will learn how to critically read scientific papers.
4. Students will master the fundamental skills of scientific research, including experimental design and statistical analysis.
5. Students will learn to prepare a grant application based on their dissertation outline; it will include a research budget in addition to literature review and experimental design sections and may be submitted to an external funding agency.
6. Students will carry out their own original dissertation research project that should result in two or three full length scientific publications.
7. Students will acquire the ability to communicate their knowledge to others verbally and in writing.
8. Students will participate in the teaching of the medical neuroscience to medical students at least once.
9. Students will learn the fundamentals of scientific ethics and appreciate the importance of ethical behavior in science.

Masters Program

1. Students will learn the fundamentals of modern neuroscience, including the neurochemistry and molecular biology of neurons and glia and the basic neurobiology of behavior.
2. Students will learn how to critically read scientific papers.
3. Students will learn basic scientific research skills, including experimental design and statistical analysis.
4. Students will carry out their own original thesis research project that should result in one full length scientific publication.
5. Students will acquire the ability to communicate their knowledge to others verbally and in writing.
6. Students will participate in the teaching of the medical neuroscience to medical students one time.
7. Students will learn the fundamentals of scientific ethics and appreciate the importance of ethical behavior in science.