This new R13 application requests support for a scientific meeting entitled Behavior, biology and chemistry: translational research in addiction to be held in San Antonio Texas in February 2009. The two-day meeting, modeled after a recent highly successful laboratory exchange among addiction research laboratories from six different universities, will host a diverse set of attendees, from undergraduate students to senior scientists. This mixture of junior and senior investigators, post- and pre-graduate students provides role models for young scientists while at the same time gives them the opportunity to present results from their own research in a context where there is a lower threshold for presentation, compared with most national meetings. Because of the geographic location of the meeting, it provides a unique opportunity for underrepresented minorities in South Texas to participate in a focused, high-quality, and translational addiction meeting. The transdisciplinary and translational theme will foster new scientific initiatives and thinking outside the constraints of traditional disciplines. The format of the meeting will contribute to training a new generation of biomedical researchers and, in the process, will provide an intensive exposure to new and exciting topics in addiction research. The plenary session (Drs. Cunningham, Clarke, Gilbertson and Natarajan ) in this first, of what is hoped to be an annual, meeting will focus on serotonin (5-HT) receptors as novel targets for medication development. There will be open communications, a poster session and reception, and a formal dinner with an after dinner presentation by Dr. Kenakin, an internationally-recognized expert in receptor theory and drug development. The meeting will end with a lecture by Dr. Glennon on the value of interactions between medicinal chemistry and in vivo pharmacology in drug development. A major goal of this meeting is to facilitate interactions among chemists, biologists and behaviorists. Benefits of those interactions will be a cross-fertilization of ideas and conceptions among disciplines that will facilitate the development of new collaborations, medications, and research tools. Participation by scientists working in different areas is expected to have a synergistic outcome to the benefit of all and in contrast to the focused and often inbred thinking that occurs in many meetings. A second major goal is to provide an attractive and affordable venue for young scientists in the addiction field to present their research and to learn about state-of-the-art research on new therapeutic targets for drug addiction. The plenary session and other keynote lectures will be archived electronically and made available to the scientific community for download from the Internet.
This application requests support for a unique scientific meeting that brings together students, junior and senior faculty from different disciplines (molecular biology to psychiatry) in order to promote new collaborations and creative transdisciplinary and translational thinking about novel targets for developing medications for drug addiction. This meeting will promote new scientific initiatives and introduce young scientists, especially underrepresented minorities, to cutting-edge research in the field of addictions.
