The Center for Adolescent Rhythms, Reward, and Sleep (CARRS) Phenotyping and Biobanking Core (Core B) supports the research projects through the acquisition of research subjects with specific phenotypic characteristics required by the human and animal projects. Our central hypothesis is that late sleep timing, short sleep duration, and circadian misalignment adversely impact cortico-limbic function in adolescents, further enhancing reward sensitivity, impairing cognitive control, and increasing substance use risk. The coordinated and deliberate procedures for assuring analogous phenotypic characteristics in humans and animals provide the foundation for this translational scientific program. For human studies (Projects 1 and 2), Core B will conduct systematic recruitment and screening of adolescents ages 13 through 15 years old to provide participants systematically varied in sleep timing. For rodent studies, Core B will establish a breeding and phenotyping pipeline to provide the animals required for Projects 3, 4 and 5. Core B will also provide biobanking services, including the collection, management, and banking of specimens from adolescent humans and adolescent HS rats to measure molecular rhythm phenotypes and to provide a high-quality repository for future mechanistic studies. Core B contributes to this innovative translational research program by collaboratively developing and implementing plans for assuring analogous phenotypes for CARRS human adolescent and adolescent rodent model studies.
