The UCLA Brain Research Institute's Neural Repair Program is a new effort aimed at enhancing the performance of the damaged nervous system and combining rehabilitation with exciting new options for regeneration. The program builds on the latest developments in rehabilitation techniques, our understanding of the biochemical basis of rehabilitation, the new awareness of the adult brain's regeneration capability, and new engineering options for developing microscopic prosthetic devices.

A central goal of the program is to ensure that lessons learned in conducting research on individual diseases are translated into more generalizable techniques of neural repair. Growth factors, stem cells, rehabilitation techniques, etc. are being studied for individual diseases, but the techniques are generally relevant to a wide spectrum of neurological disorders. This program brings together scientists from complementary fields in an effort to stimulate the translation of basic knowledge into advances that will improve the lives of people with diseases and injuries of the nervous system.

UCLA's ability to formulate such a program is rooted in its long tradition of collaborative research across academic departments and research programs. UCLA can also develop this cross-cutting program because of its large active programs in such areas as spinal cord research, Parkinson's disease, traumatic brain injury, Huntington's disease, Neuroengineering, Alzheimer's disease, and multiple sclerosis. The Neural Repair Program provides an ongoing opportunity for rapid transfer of new knowledge and techniques across programs in an active initiative dedicated to advancement in all areas of neural repair.

A call for postdoctoral fellowship applications will be sent out in the Fall. All predoctoral fellowship slots are filled.