HISTORY OF THE CENTER

The Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience began as the Neuroscience Group in 1984 under the leadership of James G. Townsel, Ph. D., the   then Chairman of the Department of Physiology.  Seven resident neuroscientists served as the seed group in an application submitted in response to a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) initiative - Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Program.  The grant was awarded in 1985 (G12 RR003032-01) and provided funds to recruit an additional five neuroscientists.  
 The RCMI grant also assisted the college in an extensive renovation project resulting in the conversion of over 11,000 square-feet of space in the Biomedical Sciences Building to well-equipped neuroscience laboratories. At a special ceremony on Thursday, May 14, 1987, Dr. Betty Pickett, Director of the Division of Research Resources, NIH, officially presented the newly developed Neuroscience Laboratories in the Biomedical Sciences Building to Dr. David Satcher, then President of Meharry Medical College.  A competing renewal award from the RCMI program enabled the recruitment of an additional cadre of six interdisciplinary neuroscientists.

The expanded neuroscience faculty had an immediate impact on graduate training.  A new training tract in physiology with an emphasis in neuroscience was approved in 1988 and in 1993 the college was awarded a T32 neuroscience training program award (T32 MH019843) from NIMH, the first at a HBCU.  Currently, trainees are supported in part by the “Alliance for Research Training in Neuroscience” award (T32MH065782).  Most recently, funding has been acquired from NIMH (R25 MH079330) to pilot a “Neurobiology of Disease” course.

In 1997 the Board of Trustee formally organized the expanded neuroscience faculty under the umbrella of the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience with Dr. Townsel as the Director.  Subsequently Drs. Clivel G. Charlton and Hubert K. Rucker have served as center director. The continued growth and expansion of neuroscience at the college has been enhanced by a number of program/center development grant awards (Neuroscience Programs). The current interest of the center faculty spans the gamut from the molecular neurobiology of cellular signaling and synaptic plasticity to the neurobiology of complex behavior.