Dr. Stoeckel is a clinically trained neuropsychologist, a second-year postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Addiction Medicine and Psychological Assessment Center, and a research affiliate at the MGH-Martinos Biomedical Imaging Center and the Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who has been recommended for promotion to HMS Instructor in Psychology in June 2011. The proposed K23 will provide the advanced training and mentored research experience Dr. Stoeckel needs to prepare him to conduct independent patient-oriented addiction research (POAR). Dr. Stoeckel's goal is to improve our understanding of the pathophysiology of drug-related and putative neurobehavioral addictions, such as certain phenotypes of obesity, with the aim of developing rational, novel therapeutics based on this knowledge. Dr. Stoeckel is poised to be able to become an independent investigator, and a period of advanced training, skill development and mentored clinical research with an exceptional multidisciplinary mentoring team in a rich environment known for fostering the development of independent clinician-scientists, are critical at this stage in his career to enable him to advance to the next stage as an independent clinician-scientist. During the award period, Dr. Stoeckel will achieve the following aims: (1) Develop expertise in methodologies critical to developing novel, individualized, neuroscience-based assessment tools and interventions for adults with addictions. (2) Conduct mentored POAR using neuropsychological assessments and real time functional magnetic resonance imaging (RTfMRI) neurofeedback to advance our understanding of the pathophysiology of addiction and relapse and to investigate hypothesized pathophysiological commonalities between drug addiction and neurobehavioral addictions. (3) Undertake leadership training to prepare him for a role as an independent clinical and translational addiction neuroscientist and future leader of an addiction program specializing in drug-related and neurobehavioral addictions.
The specific aims to be accomplished during the K23 Award Period are (1) Establish expertise in neuroimaging modalities and psychophysiology assessment techniques, and in integrating these tools for POAR;(2) Conduct a mentored research project, utilizing these techniques to study reward and inhibitory control mechanisms in nicotine dependent and obese individuals that can be used to develop clinical interventions;(3) Obtain career mentorship from those successfully managing clinical and translational research programs, to prepare him for his long-term professional goal of leading a clinical addiction program and conducting clinical and translational neuropsychological/neuroscience research;and (4) Undertake specialized training in the ethical conduct of research. To accomplish these goals, Dr. Stoeckel will devote 75% effort toward accomplishing the clinical research training goals and POAR as outlined in this proposal.
Nicotine dependence and obesity are the two greatest public health challenges facing the United States today. This proposal will provide training for a talented neuropsychologist who aims to improve our understanding of the pathophysiology of addiction and obesity in order to develop new, more effective individualized therapies.
