This application is a request for continuing support for a predoctoral NIDA Training Program in Neuroscience, which was founded at The University of Michigan (UM) in 1995. The major goal of the Program is to recruit and develop student interest in research related to the biological basis of substance abuse, and to provide the necessary administrative, faculty and educational resources for students with these interests to pursue a Ph.D. degree in the field of neuroscience. To be eligible for support by the NIDA Training Program students first must gain admittance to an existing UM graduate program in the biological, biomedical or natural sciences, such as the Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Neuroscience. Students nominated for support by the NIDA Training Program in Neuroscience are selected on the basis of two criteria: (a) academic qualifications and references (i.e., academic excellence), and (b) the relevance of their program of study and research to the NIDA mission. After admission to the NIDA Training Program students pursue a program of study in the neurosciences, including a required course on the neuropsychopharmacology of substance abuse. The Training Faculty in the NIDA Training Program in Neuroscience consists of eighteen faculties, all of whom conduct research related to the biological basis of substance abuse. Most faculty are PI or Co-PI on a NIDA-funded research grant. The training grant is used primarily to foster interest in students to do research rotations, and then their dissertation research, on the neurobiology of substance abuse by working with Training Faculty. Collectively, Training Faculty provides considerable expertise in the neurobiology and biopsychology of many drugs of abuse. In addition, NIDA Training Program faculty are assisted by over 100 Neuroscience Resource Faculty. The latter provide invaluable assistance to the NIDA Training Program because of their involvement in many aspects of the Neuroscience Graduate Program. The NIDA Training Program is administered by a Director and a Co- Director, with the continuing advice of a three member Executive Committee.
The actions of drugs of abuse on the brain are fundamental to their adverse consequences, including addiction;a major public health problem. This grant is to foster interest in the next generation of researchers, early in their graduate studies, to devote their research and eventual career to studying this problem, in the hope of developing effective treatments.
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