As a leading discipline of life sciences in the 21th century, neurobiology has emerged since the 1960s and focuses on interdisciplinary research on the working principles of the nervous system and the molecular mechanisms of neurological diseases. In 1980, School of Basic Medicine of Tongji Medical College took the lead in delivering lectures on neurobiology and set up the Neurobiology Teaching and Research Office in 1988. Department of Neurobiology was formed in 2002 by merging the Neurobiology Teaching and Research Office and Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory. In 2003, Department of Neurobiology was evaluated as a third-level laboratory of National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine for acupuncture neurobiology. In 2004, Department of Neurobiology, together with other departments of School of Basic Medicine, established Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory of Neurological Diseases, which was upgraded as a key laboratory of Ministry of Education in 2007. The department participated in the founding of Institute of Brain Research of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2011. It is a chairman unit of Hubei Provincial Neuroscience Society and a member unit of Chinese Neuroscience Society, China Association of Acupuncture-Moxibustion, Hubei Physiological Society, etc.
Department of Neurobiology has 8 full-time faculty members, five of whom are professors, one associate professor and 2 lecturers. It runs eight courses for undergraduates including Sensory Nervous System Integration and Medical Neurobiology, six courses for master degree candidates including Introduction to Neurobiology and Advanced Functions of Nervous System, and one course named Advanced Neurobiology for doctoral students.
Department of Neurobiology sets sights on basic research for application and tries to tackle major problems closely related to national economy, sci-technological development and clinical medicine. It focuses on four research areas including the molecular mechanism of neurological diseases, the regulatory mechanism of sensory nerves, pain and analgesic mechanism research, and the molecular mechanism of neural development.
During the 12th Five-Year Plan, Department of Neurobiology has undertaken 14 projects from the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Besides, it also received one Sino-US cooperation project, two Sino-Dutch cooperation projects, one New Century Excellent Talents project, four Start-up Funds for Returnees from the Ministry of Education, two projects from the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province and so on. The total funding within five years was more than 10 million RMB. Its faculty members have published a number of SCI articles as the first author or corresponding authors in neuroscience-related journals including Nature, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Neurosceince, Neuron, Gastroenteology, Nature Communications, Cerebral Cortex, Pain, Mol Pain, Neurobiol Aging, Molelular Neurobiology, etc.
Department of Neurobiology is qualified to enroll Ph.D. and M.D. students in two first-level disciplines, that is, Biology and Integrative Discipline of Chinese and Western Medicine. In the meanwhile, it is a postdoctoral mobile station for three first-level disciplines, namely, Basic Medicine, Biology and Biology and Integrative Discipline of Chinese and Western Medicine. Relying on its strong laboratory Department of Neurobiology serves as a significant training base for 8-year and 5-year excellent innovative undergraduates in School of Basic Medicine. It receives about 20 outstanding undergraduates each year for scientific research activities and instructs them to participate in national competitions. It enrolls 8-10 master degree candidates and 5-6 doctoral candidates every year, and welcomes outstanding doctors to join in its postdoctoral mobile station.
