Housed in the School of Allied Health Sciences, Boise State is offering students’ a new program that explores the field of neuroscience through interdisciplinary research and lab work.
The Idaho State Board of Education approved the new neuroscience undergraduate program on June 13, 2024.
The new program’s curriculum includes coursework in biology, psychology, kinesiology and data science. The program provides students with research opportunities that focus on neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
The neuroscience program includes two areas of emphasis: Cellular/Molecular, that will focus on biological sciences and Cognitive/Behavioral that will focus on psychological studies.
Bob Wood, director of the School of Allied Health Sciences and assistant dean of research for the College of Health Sciences, says that the idea for the new program began when he first arrived at Boise State.
“When I arrived here about six years ago, it became very evident to me that we had most of the pieces in place that we needed for a neuroscience degree, between biology, psychology and kinesiology and a couple other areas,” Wood said. “It was really a question of getting those people together to talk about their interest in developing a program and then finding the resources to build in those new courses.”
As one of the faculty members, Wood played a role in developing the neuroscience program’s curriculum. This process took around three years with the help of faculty members from biology, psychology and kinesiology departments.
“You want everyone to have input, you want everyone to feel like their lens is important,” Wood said. “That’s not something that happens overnight.”
Wood explained that the program is expected to receive around $388,000 over the next four to five years in funding from the Idaho State Board of Education to support student credit hours and around $600,000 will go towards the program’s operating budget.
The program allows students to explore different research opportunities such as the Vertically Integrated Projects.
“The thing about the VIP [Vertically Integrated Project] that’s really great is that from the very get-go, from the student’s first day on campus, we can introduce them to the research environment,” Wood said. “The way the VIP is set up is it allows students with no research background [to ] get in.”
Currently, 15 students are pursuing a major in the program, and seven students are pursuing a minor.
Wood predicts that the neuroscience program will ultimately expand into a PhD program over time, attracting students for graduate study and possibly receive funding from sponsors like the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“I think [the program is] attracting recognition from other scholars around the world, when they [say] ‘Oh you need to go to that program at Boise State,’” Wood said. “Their students may be coming here, setting up exchange programs for faculty and students in other countries. Those [are] things we want to do, whether we have a PhD program or not.”
Neuroscience Program Director and Professor Dr. Hwan Kim explained that the program’s lab work is conducting tests on mice to study the pathological mechanisms of Parkinson’s disease.
Kim said Boise State being the first and only undergraduate neuroscience program in Idaho, it’ll help with recruiting.
“I believe that this is a great opportunity for us to recruit students from neighboring states as well and also even internally,” Kim said. “We can encourage that internal interaction for interdisciplinary studies, between biology, psychology, kinesiology.”
Dr. Kim’s laboratory on neurodegenerative disease research currently has four Boise State undergraduate students and four PhD students from Delaware State University where he previously worked developing a similar program on investigating Parkinson’s Disease.
One of Dr. Kim’s undergraduate laboratory students, freshman Brayden Parks, says the goal of the laboratory is to “advance” the understanding of Parkinson’s disease by developing treatments to counteract the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease through models.
Parks, a double major in neuroscience and philosophy, says that he hopes to continue pursuing neuroscience after he graduates.
“My hope is to uncover as many of the possible mysteries regarding the brain as possible because I really do think that it’s the key to so many things, whether it’s disease-related pathologies like Parkinson’s [disease] or Alzheimer’s [disease],” Parks said. “It has everything to do with the nervous system in some way or another.”
Dr. Kim invites Boise State students who are interested in the program or have any questions to walk into his office or contact him yonghwankim@boisestate.edu.
