What would you call "Brain Chemistry"?

Parent Cafe
41

<p>as a freshman I decided I’d be a neuroscience major -- i soon realized that over 90% kids in my major were aspiring to be veterinarians or going into medicine or pharm schools -- i switched out into chemistry because i loved chemistry -- unfortunately with hardcore chemistry there are few places which are also involved with neuroscience – neuroscience is under biology's jurisdiction -- chemistry is much more fundamental in its essence (small molecules, catalysts, physical phenomena) -- while neuroscience has much more to do with biology (large molecular aggregates, enzymes, cells, tissue culture)</p>

<p>so in summary there is not a lot of neurochemistry out there</p>

<p>what I would suggest is that he picks a place where there is a prof or two doing research in neuroscience area and which has strong biology and chemistry departments – this way he can major under chemistry or biology departments, take regular courses in all sorts of subjects, take may be a few neurosciences courses (schools don’t usually offer very many of these), but also have a hands-on experience working on some project that related to neuroscience – neuroscience sounds very alluring, but in reality you either make molecules or run gels, so he has to pick whether he’d want to sacrifice being a hardcore chemist to get deeper into neuroscience field or if he really doesn’t want to be a biologist (I would suggest being a chemist, because chemistry is like the foundation for biology and a few times I met biologists who had no idea about any chemistry, because they only took bio classes and hated o-chem, and then they engage in bs science – like try to couple something to a cell using some very weird and impractical reagents – while it is easier to catch up with biology being a chemist) </p>

<p>afterwards if your kid wants to do research, he needs to get a PhD -- he'll have to choose to apply to either chemistry or biology programs – it is one or the other -- and unfortunately there are not a lot of places that combine studying brain and using chemistry – most biological chemistry focuses on enzymes, proteins, human diseases like Alzheimer’s, NMR to study macromolecules, etc -- while there are more schools that combine biology and neuroscience – I know of just one school, Caltech, where there are two hardcore chemistry professors that also do neuroscience – but I’m sure there might be a few others</p>

<p>another option is pharmacy school</p>

42

<p>At Caltech, the UG major is called CNS (cognitive neuroscience), and falls under engineering and applied science. Its truly a cross between departments.Offers lots of research opportunities</p>

43

<p>Apologies for resurrecting an old thread…, but came across this when I did a search on programs for brain chemistry. D is a current college sophmore, chem major (loves chem, but really hasn’t sorted out yet what she wants to do with it). Is now thinking “brain chemistry” sounds interesting. Also has some other thoughts along the lines of forensics, research – all fairly broad.
I’m thinking she may want to speak with her advisor about adding a math minor – so much math in the chem program anyways, seems like it would be a fairly easy add on. It also looks like many brain science programs don’t really have a lot to do with chem, but I see applied mathematics mentioned a lot. Just trying to think of ways for her to keep her options open as she progresses through undergrad and starts to sort out more fully what she might like to do in real life. Does this make sense? Thanks for input, I found the above thread helpful.</p>