This is a competitive renewal for years 26 to 31 of an interdisciplinary drug abuse research training program. We seek to vigorously identify a highly talented group of postdoctoral researchers who we can train to integrate basic and translational research in the pharmacology, physiology and neurobiology of drug abuse. The program has a long and distinguished history and our past trainees have compiled a gratifying record of achievements. The program has been reconfigured to provide interdisciplinary training that maintains Sinai's historical strengths and takes advantage of new intellectual, educational, programmatic and physical resources of the school. Over the past six years Mount Sinai has recruited a highly renowned broad-based faculty in drug abuse research such as L. A. Devi (Director of this training program), Y. Hurd (Co-Director of this program), C. Alberini and most recently E. Nestler. Dr. Nestler will be heading the newly formed Brain Research Institute and the Department of Neuroscience. Mount Sinai has also embarked on a collaborative program with Brookhaven Laboratories to further develop live imaging modalities in substance abuse research. This program will train inter- and trans-disciplinary researchers who can go to develop independent and collaborative research programs that significantly advance the basic understanding and treatment of this important social and medical problem. The training program encourages participation of faculty mentors whose research grants do not specifically target drug abuse, but whose research is critically important for the interdisciplinary training we seek to impart, thus offering fellows flexibility in developing truly interdisciplinary research projects between laboratories. The training will have a didactic component to foster interdisciplinary reasoning skills and understand and maintain awareness of the ethical issues in research. The trainees will be provided guidance to develop independent research projects that can serve as the basis to launch successful independent careers in substance abuse research. Mount Sinai provides a fertile environment and significant resources for this important training program that will contribute robustly to the national pipeline of highly trained interdisciplinary investigators working on drug abuse research.
We describe a training program that reflects this vision and that, we hope, will train researchers who provide significant advances in the basic understanding and treatment of drug addiction that is an important social and medical problem. This training program also offers fellows flexibility in obtaining an interdisciplinary training in drug abuse research.
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