Partial support is requested for an additional 3 years (reduced from 5 years) for the Guze Symposium (GS), an annual all-day alcoholism symposium held in St. Louis and named in memory of the eminent alcohol researcher and practitioner Samuel B. Guze, M.D. In the first funding period, a diverse panel of scientists have participated in 4 Symposia focused on high school drinking;neuroscience and genetics;comorbidity;and alcoholism and tobacco dependence;with another slated for 02/15/07 on alcohol use across the lifespan. In the renewal application, the lead organization will continue to be the Midwest Alcoholism Research Center (MARC) at Washington University. The Symposium will retain its mix of oral presentations and poster session. Invited formal presentations will be given by distinguished researchers in alcohol and related fields, as well as promising junior investigators. Two staffed poster sessions, for meeting awardees, MARC and other investigators, will promote scientific dialog between researchers, practitioners, and community attendees. Meeting awards for pre and post doctoral fellows, and (new) formal awards for non-researchers from the community, are available to defray costs of attendance. Slides from oral and poster sessions, and (new for 2007) videos of the talks, will be posted (with permission) on the MARC website. New to GS planning is inclusion of email surveys of audience and others for nominations of topics for Symposia, in order to improve the relevance of the GS for its targeted constituencies, thereby enhancing its outreach. Also new is the plan for increased post-meeting evaluation both to identify areas for improvement, and to better track the impact of the GS (including specific surveys of poster presenters and speakers as well as other attendees.) In the present application, topics and suggested speakers are proposed for 3 annual symposia to be held from 2008-2010. The overall goals are to increase the visibility of alcohol research by attracting a broad audience to a forum where cutting edge interdisciplinary topics in alcohol research will be presented;to promote ongoing alcohol research and translational research, and to stimulate others to purse alcohol-related research;to develop junior investigators through speaking and other opportunities, and to provide meeting awards for pre and post doctoral trainees and non-research community participants. Taken together, these aims will maintain the Guze Symposium as a premier conference on alcohol research, providing a forum aimed at a broad audience in which latest issues in alcohol research and related fields will be presented and debated, a step toward bridging the gap between research and practice and promoting awareness of and applicability of alcohol research findings to community needs.
| Scherrer, Jeffrey F; Xian, Hong; Pan, Hui et al. (2012) Parent, sibling and peer influences on smoking initiation, regular smoking and nicotine dependence. Results from a genetically informative design. Addict Behav 37:240-7 |
| Scherrer, Jeffrey F; Grant, Julia D; Duncan, Alexis E et al. (2009) Subjective effects to cannabis are associated with use, abuse and dependence after adjusting for genetic and environmental influences. Drug Alcohol Depend 105:76-82 |
