This application requests 5 years of support for a new Institutional National Research Service Award to support multi disciplinary postdoctoral training in alcoholism research. We request support for three post-doctoral fellows in year 1, increasing to a maximum of five post-doctoral fellows in training in years 2-5 (1-2 MD-s, 3-4 PhDs), for primary training in the (I) genetics (statistical/quantitative, molecular, or behavioral), (ii) epidemiology and nosology, or (iii) neurobiology of alcoholism and alcohol's effects on the central nervous system. In addition to specialization in a primary discipline, trainees will be encouraged to obtain a sufficient familiarity with at least one other focus area to facilitate fruitful cross-disciplinary collaborations in their research careers. The training program will ordinarily be of 3 years duration, reflecting the diverse background of our applicant pool (e.g. psychology, psychiatry, endocrinology, infectious diseases, mathematics, economics, anthropology, sociology, neuroscience), or 2 years for those with pertinent research experience. 1-2-year post-doctoral fellowships are also offered for experienced alcoholism researchers seeking training in a new area of alcoholism research (e.g. genetics). Trainees will be provided with postdoctoral offices attached to the research suite where major research operations of the Missouri Alcoholism Research Center are based, or in appropriate laboratory space. The training program will emphasize a research apprenticeship model, combining research under the mentorship of one or more research mentors with more formal training through didactic courses or individualized tutorials. Major strengths of the program are the availability of a large faculty with an active program of alcoholism research, representing expertise in many aspects of statistical/quantitative, molecular and behavioral genetic, epidemiologic and data-bases, and access to a large number of ongoing projects, that offer many research options to trainees; the program's location in one of the nation's leading medical schools, allowing trainees to take advantage of a rich array of didactic courses and seminars and research experiences; and the long tradition of successful mentoring and research training of scientists and physician scientists from diverse intellectual backgrounds.
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