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Version 9/12

Preferred Start Date
(yyyy-mm-dd):
Previous Training
School:
Degree(s) Received:
Year(s) Received:
Field(s) of Study:
Name:
Mailing Address:
Email:
Proposed Mentors
Primary Mentor:
Department, Institution
Area of Expertise:
Email:
RESEARCH PLAN
Citizenship
US Citizen or US NonCitizen National
Permanent resident of US
Other
Present Graduate Program
School:
Harvard University
Harvard Medical School
HST
MIT
Department:
Program:
Date Entered:
Joint Mentor:
Department, Institution
Area of Expertise:
Email:
Title of Project:
Project Description:

EDUCATION PLAN
A goal of the program is to promote an integrated curriculum that combines neuroscience with the physical and biological principles, technologies, and data analytic methods of neuroimaging by encouraging students to take courses and participate in activities that are outside their traditional area of study. Please look up current course offerings and list the courses and activities that will augment your interdisciplinary research goals during the training year. A list of past courses and activities is included on the following page for guidance.
FINANCIAL INFORMATION
The financial support provided by this training program will not cover the full costs of graduate tuition and stipend for most students. It is the policy of this program, in line with NIH guidelines for research training programs, that additional funds to supplement stipend and tuition must come from a non-federal funding source . This requirement must be considered in planning for application to this program, and it is expected that the student, advisor(s), and graduate administrators in the student’s department have discussed preliminary plans to supplement the training grant award prior to application.
Please confirm that you understand this policy, and that you have discussed plans to supplement the training grant award with the necessary persons.
I have read and understand the policy on supplementation
I have discussed plans for supplemental support, should it be needed, with my advisor and graduate administrators
In accepting an appointment to this training program, you are agreeing to accept the terms of the NIH award that funds this program as well as any institutional terms related to the administration of the award. You also agree to acknowledge the training program support in any presentation or publication of research results acquired while receiving training grant support.
SIGNATURES
____________________________ _________________________________ _______________________________
Applicant Primary Mentor Joint Mentor
BIOSKETCH
Please attach current NIH biosketch

DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
This information is required by the National Institutes of Health, and will be used for statistical reporting purposes only.
Sex
Male
Female
Race / Ethnicity
1. Are you Hispanic or Latino
(of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or descent, regardless of race)?
Hispanic or Latino
Not Hispanic or Latino
2. What is your racial background?
American Indian/Alaska Native
Asian
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
Black or African American
White
Other

Suggested Courses and Activities
A goal of the program is to promote an integrated curriculum that combines neuroscience with the physical and biological principles, technologies, and data analytic methods of neuroimaging by encouraging students to take courses and participate in activities that are outside their traditional area of study.
Interdisciplinary courses are offered at Harvard and MIT and should supplement the requirements of the student’s home graduate program. For a neuroscience-oriented student, this may mean taking engineering or physics oriented courses for image acquisition or image analysis, or for physical and computationally oriented students, taking basic and clinical neuroscience courses. Harvard and MIT students will be able to freely cross-register for courses at both institutions. Please consult the graduate program’s most recent listing of courses in making your selection as seneral of the c ourses below may no longer be available or may have merged with other courses.
Other, less formal educational activities may include journal clubs, seminar series, lab meetings, short courses, conferences etc. Trainees will be allotted $750 to defray the cost of attending one scientific meeting, preferably complimentary to, but outside his/her typical field.
List of past courses that have been recommended:
Neuroscience courses
Neurobiology 200
Introduction to Neurobiology
Neurobiology 204
Neurophysiology of Central
Circuits
Neurobiology 207 Developmental
Neurobiology
Neurobiology 209
Neurobiology of Disease
BCS 9.011
Systems Neuroscience
BCS 9.100
Cognitive Neuroscience
HST 130
Introduction to Neuroscience
Modern neuroscience from molecular neurobiology to perception and cognition.
Includes cell biology of neurons and glia; ion channels and electrical signaling; synaptic transmission and integration; chemical systems; brain anatomy and development; sensory systems; motor systems; higher cognitive function.
Introduction to the physiology of circuits in the vertebrate central nervous system.
Topics include the auditory, somatosensory, olfactory, visual and oculomotor systems.
Development of the nervous system. Topics include: delineation of neural vs. non-neural tissues; axial and segmental patterning; cell lineage; specification of neuronal identity; axonal outgrowth and guidance; synapse formation and regression; hormonal influences on nervous system development.
Designed for graduate students interested in diseases and disorders of the nervous system. One weekly session involves patient presentations and "core" lectures describing progression, pathology and basic science underlying a major disease or disorder. During a second weekly session, students present material from original literature sources, and there is discussion.
Survey of principles underlying the structure and function of the nervous system, with a focus on systems approaches. Topics: development of the nervous system and its connections, sensory systems of the brain, the motor system, higher cortical functions, behavioral and cellular analyses of learning and memory. A survey of brain and behavioral studies for first-year graduate students. Open to graduate students in other departments with permission of instructor.
Course topics explore the relations between neural systems and cognition, emphasizing attention, vision, language, motor control, and memory. An introduction to basic neuroanatomy, functional imaging techniques, and behavioral measures of cognition is given with discussion of methods by which inferences about the brain bases of cognition are made. Evidence from patients with neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, Balint's syndrome, amnesia, and focal lesions from stroke is given as well as from normal human participants.
This team-taught, comprehensive course explores major concepts in neuroscience on several levels ranging from molecules and cells through neural systems, perception

cognition and behavior. Aspects of neuropharmacology, pathophysiology, neurology, and psychiatry are covered as well. Class meets three times per week for lecture followed by conferences and/or laboratories. Laboratories review neuroanatomy of brain and spinal cord at the gross and microscopic levels.
Courses on Fundamental Principles of Neuroimaging – Acquisition and Analysis
HST 550
Medical Image Analysis
This course, focusing on the computational aspects of medical imaging, will be developed and taught by a team of faculty drawn from HST, MIT EECS, and HMS that participate in the local laboratories currently pursuing research and development of medical image analysis. The class will have a strong computational laboratory component in which the students will solve application problems using tools that are in common usage in the field. The course will focus on the major areas of medical image
HST 210
Clinical Applications of
Neuroimaging
HST 584
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Techniques post-processing, including techniques for modeling, quantification, surgical planning and the analysis of functional information. It will develop those areas of statistics, including biostatistics, that are germane to medical image analysis, including estimation, the theory of linear models, hypothesis testing, issues arising from small samples, calculation of confidence and power, and statistical parametric mapping. Topics from advanced linear systems will be covered, specifically the analysis of diffusion tensor MRI. The major application areas of segmentation and registration will be covered with respect the analysis of MRI, CT, XRAY, PET, SPECT, fMRI, EEG, MEG, and electrocorticography.
This one-month course will occur during the Winter IAP (Inter-Academic Period) session.
The course will be taught from a clinical case based perspective and will include field trips to observe clinical imaging. Topics to be covered include clinical service imaging
(e.g. DWI for stroke diagnosis, prognosis, treatment response), neurosurgical applications such as Image-guided Therapy and Image-guided Surgery. The course will also cover state of the art imaging for: Pain Disorders, Tumors, Epilepsy, Dementia
(Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s), Schizophrenia, Depression, Anxiety Disorders, Substance
Abuse, and Pre-surgical planning. A module covering ethical issues in imaging will be included that deals with special populations: children, elderly, psychiatrically impaired.
Introduction to basic NMR theory. Examples of biochemical data obtained using NMR summarized along with other related experiments. Detailed study of NMR imaging
HST 582
Biomedical Signal and Image
Processing
HST 583
Functional MRI: Data Acquisition and Analysis. techniques includes discussions of basic cross-sectional image reconstruction, image contrast, flow and real-time imaging, and hardware design considerations. Exposure to laboratory NMR spectroscopic and imaging equipment included.
Fundamentals of digital signal processing with particular emphasis on problems in biomedical research and clinical medicine. Basic principles and algorithms for data acquisition, imaging, filtering and feature extraction. Laboratory projects provide practical experience in processing physiological data, with examples from neurophysiology, cardiology, speech processing, and medical imaging.
Provides information relevant to the conduct and interpretation of human brain mapping studies. In-depth coverage of the physics of image formation, mechanisms of image contrast, and the physiological basis for image signals. Parenchymal and cerebrovascular neuroanatomy and application of sophisticated structural analysis algorithms for segmentation and registration of functional data discussed. Additional topics include fMRI experimental design including block design, event-related and exploratory data analysis methods, and building and applying statistical models for fMRI data. Human subject issues including informed consent, institutional review board requirements and safety in the high field environment are presented. Twice-weekly lectures and weekly laboratory and discussion sessions. Laboratory includes fMRI data acquisition sessions and data analysis workshops. Assignments include reading of both textbook chapters and primary literature as well as fMRI data analysis in the laboratory.

HST 563
Imaging Biophysics & Clinical
Applications
HST 561/BCS9.173J
Noninvasive Imaging in Biology
& Medicine
HST 565
Molecular Imaging using SPECT &
PET-CT
HST 580
Data Acquisition & Image
Reconstruction in MRI
HST 569
Biomedical Optics
Introduction to the connections and distinctions among various imaging modalities
(ultrasound, MRI, EEG, optical), common goals of biomedical imaging, broadly defined target of biomedical imaging, and the current practical and economic landscape of biomedical imaging research. Emphasis on applications of imaging research. Final project consists of student groups writing mock grant applications for biomedical imaging research project, modeled after an exploratory National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant application.
Background in the theory and application of noninvasive imaging methods in biology and medicine, with emphasis on neuroimaging. Focuses on the modalities most frequently used in scientific research (x-ray CT, PET/SPECT, MRI, and optical imaging), and includes discussion of molecular imaging approaches used in conjunction with these scanning methods. Lectures are supplemented by in-class discussions of problems in research and demonstrations of imaging systems.
Covers the physical and instrumentation basics of positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission tomography (SPECT). Topics include atomic and nuclear structure, charged particles and photon interactions, radiation detectors, pulse height sprectroscopy, detection and measurement, counting systems, survey meters, nuclear counting statistics, modes of radioactive decay, gamma cameras, collimators, and computed tomography as it pertains to SPECT, PET (including PET-CT, PET-MR and Time of Flight PET). Presents physical factors affecting image quality, such as Compton scatter, random coincidences, photoelectric absorption, deadtime, etc., as well as different approaches to compensate for them. Discusses clinical applications of PET and includes a practical demonstration of SPECT and PET-CT imaging at the Massachusetts General
Hospital.
Applies analysis of signals and noise in linear systems, sampling, and Fourier properties to magnetic resonance (MR) imaging acquisition and reconstruction. Provides adequate foundation for MR physics to enable study of RF excitation design, efficient Fourier sampling, parallel encoding, reconstruction of non-uniformly sampled data, and the impact of hardware imperfections on reconstruction performance. Surveys active areas of MR research. Assignments include Matlab-based work with real data. Includes visit to a scan site for human MR studies.
Introduction to physics and engineering of optical technologies and their applications in medicine and biology. Propagation of light in tissue, bright field, dark field, phase contrast, DIC, fluorescence, Raman, confocal, two-photon, low-coherence, spectral microscopy, and speckle. Current trends in microscopy and optical imaging. Subject is appropriate for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students in life sciences and engineering. Subject consists of lectures, seminars and occasional guest lectures.
Grading based on mid-term and final report. Report analyzes a specific technological need in medicine or biology and proposes a solution. The opportunity to pursue the implementation of the solution as a project in the following term is available.