Division of Intramural Research (DIR)

The Division of Intramural Research (DIR) is among the largest neuroscience research centers in the world. It is home to more than 500 scientists who conduct leading-edge basic, translational, and clinical research in neuroscience, neurology, and neurosurgery in Bethesda, Maryland.

NINDS intramural scientists cover a broad range of neuroscience research, including molecular biophysics, synapses and circuits, neuronal development, integrative neuroscience, neurogenetics, neuroimmunology, neuro-oncology, brain imaging, and neurological disorders.

Program Highlights

• Over 40 Principal Investigators lead research programs across the neurosciences
• Focus on high-risk, high-reward science
• Cutting edge facilities and scientific and clinical resources
• Training opportunities for all scientific and clinical career stages
• Opportunities to attend neuroscience lectures and seminars, engage with renowned experts and guest speakers, as well as build collaborations among peers, all aimed at expanding knowledge, challenging perspectives, and fostering growth.

The DIR supports and offers pre- and postdoctoral programs in both laboratory and clinical medicine, collaborations, jointly sponsored seminar series and special interest groups. Unique resources of the Intramural program include access to the NIH Clinical Center, which is a hospital totally dedicated to clinical research, and the NIH Porter Neuroscience Research Center, which integrates neuroscience researchers across 13 NIH Institutes and transcends disciplinary boundaries.

NINDS investigators contribute to a vital and growing neuroscience research community at the NIH. The NIH DIR’s unique funding structure provides investigators with the stability, flexibility, synergistic environment, and resources to conduct distinctive long-term and high-risk, high-reward science that breaks new ground, defines scientific excellence, and improves human health.

Offices

Office of the Scientific Director (OSD)

Image

The Office of the Scientific Director (OSD) oversees, coordinates, and supports research activities in the Division of Intramural Research, including providing senior leadership and enabling the allocation of resources, planning, evaluation, and implementation research programs and core facilities and fostering a nurturing environment for trainee and faculty development and research capacity building.

• Basic research pursues an understanding of the normal and abnormal structure and activities of the human nervous system.
• Translational research applies the ideas, insights, and discoveries generated through basic science to potential new diagnostics and therapies for human disease and bridges basic and clinical research.

Office of the Clinical Director (OCD)

The NINDS Office of the Clinical Director (OCD) is focused on new approaches to solving and treating neurologic diseases. It supports the Clinical Neurosciences Program from bench to bedside, integrating every aspect of clinical research to harness the transformational power of the intramural NINDS research protocols. Physician-scientists and clinical research teams seek to provide patients with the highest level of care while offering the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of clinical studies. A large number of clinical studies are currently ongoing in a variety of neurological disorders; details of which can be accessed through ClinicalTrials. The program also offers a unique environment for clinicians and physician-scientists working within the NIH Clinical Center, the nation’s largest hospital devoted entirely to clinical research, and a unique training environment for the next generation of clinician-scientists.