Scientific Resource Core The primary goal of the UNC Alcohol Research Center (ARC) is to increase understanding of the molecular and cellular pathogenesis in alcoholism. The purpose of the Scientific Resource Core (SRC) is to facilitate and extend this integrated research effort by providing access to cutting-edge technology, shared facilities, resources and technical expertise. In addition, the SRC fosters interaction among ARC investigators with the explicit purpose of increasing coordination and cohesiveness among individual research components. In this renewal application, the SRC has two specific goals. First, the SRC will support functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (fcMRI) studies designed to discover novel alcohol-induced changes in neural circuit connectivity, and activity, spanning multiple phases of addiction and mammalian species. This work will be conducted in an expert-driven environment within the SRC using shared facilities provided by the UNC Biomedical Research Imaging Center (BRIC). Access to cutting-edge imaging technologies and high end instrumentation in the BRIC significantly enhances the capabilities of Research Components by providing rigorous methods, sophisticated facilities, user support, and quality control of imaging. Second, the SRC provides facilities, resources, and expertise to allow measurement of alcohol-induced changes in gene and protein expression, and neural circuit function. These centralized facilities allow rigorous, standardized, and quality-controlled data collection across a variety of models, and extends the capability of Research Components to include novel methods. To assure effective functioning of the Core and to facilitate the integrative efforts of the ARC, the SRC holds a monthly meeting (chaired by Dr. Hodge) of ARC investigators that evaluates progress and provides a venue for data and idea sharing. Access to these resources, and integrative environment, is a highly significant feature of the ARC that contributes to the accomplishment of our shared goals. Together, these services and resources provide the Research Components with the unique capability of delineating alcohol-induced molecular changes in specific brain regions that are associated with altered neural circuit connectivity. This synergistic effort will provide novel insight into mechanisms of maladaptive changes in neural circuitry that underlie alcohol addiction. Moreover, this innovative and integrative strategy represents a clear advantage to conducting the proposed research as Center rather than separate research efforts.
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