This is an application for a competing renewal of a Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research (K24). The applicant is a psychiatrist/biophysicist who directs the McLean Hospital Brain Imaging Center (BIG), a research facility with a major interest in the development and application of magnetic resonance techniques for better understanding the acute and chronic effects of drugs of abuse on the human brain. The applicant has been a NIDA-funded investigator since 1994 and currently provides mentoring for 19 talented scientists in multiple disciplines, eight of whom have NIH-funded Mentored Career Development Awards. During the current K24 funding period (2002-2006), over 2,100 NIDA-funded research scans were completed by BIC investigators, and 70 percent were run by the applicant's mentees. The applicant requests an additional five years of funding;to relieve him of a percentage of administrative/clinical duties. This will allow him to devote 50% effort to fostering the careers of the next generation of clinician-scientists and magnetic resonance physicists in the unique field of brain imaging and substance abuse. In the service of mentee interests and to develop new directions for patient oriented research, the applicant also proposes acquiring additional competence in functional magnetic resonance imaging and cognitive/affective neuroscience. Outside the mentoring and training activities supported by the K24 award, the applicant proposes to devote his effort to the three NIH-funded research grants on which he is Principal Investigator. These funded projects comprise: DA14178, High Field MR Research in Drug Abuse: A Bioengineering Partnership;R01 DA09448-10, Magnetic Resonance, EEG, and Behavior after Cocaine;and R01 MH58681-4, MRI/MRSI Studies of Bipolar Treatment Response. With the continued support of the K24 award, a new program extending mentee opportunities by supporting pilot studies with scanner time and funding for subject payments will be implemented. Further, new patient oriented research programs extending funded studies by combining MRS/MRI with fMRI to more comprehensively address brain chemistry, structure and function are proposed in this application.
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