This application seeks support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse R25 mechanism for pre-doctoral and postdoctoral research positions, infrastructure and workshops at the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics (VIPBG) at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). The overall goal of this research education program is to provide an environment for the innovative development and applications of statistical genetics methodology relevant to substance use, abuse and dependence (SUAD). Our research education program will be further developed with new courses in Statistical Innovation, Advanced Statistical Genetics, Epidemiology of Drug Abuse and Neuroscience to foster interdisciplinary research, a key component of NIDA's mission. The research education program consists of pre-doctoral and postdoctoral components. Pre-doctoral participants pursue degrees in Psychiatric, Behavioral and Statistical Genetics, Human & Molecular Genetics, Biostatistics or Computer Science. This component is designed to recruit potential future investigators to research in statistical genetics focused on SUAD.
The aim i s to create a cohort of PhD graduates who have been exposed to, and begun to publish research in, this area. The postdoctoral component recognizes that many promising researchers have training relevant to, but not focused on, the statistical genetics of SUAD. This flexible 2-3 year post-doctoral training component guides young investigators to this field of study and provides them with integrated training that enables them to pursue careers in statistical genetics of SUAD. Research education is intended for individuals with training in mathematics, statistics, biostatistics, genetics, psychology, computer science or pharmacology and to those who have completed their clinical requirements for the MD degree. The postdoctoral component aims to educate independent investigators who contribute to efforts to identify and characterize the genetic and environmental determinants of SUAD, its development, prevention and treatment. Accordingly we: i) Offer and carefully monitor a multidisciplinary integrated research training program with a wide range of research opportunities; ii) Meet the needs for training in emerging research areas in SUAD; iii) Provide formal education and intensive mentoring to researchers from diverse academic and ethnic backgrounds; iv) Offer a specialized curriculum that merges strengths in SUAD research at our institution with training in methodological innovation; and v) Disseminate course materials, developed software, user guides and example scripts to the wider community by teaching workshops and maintaining a website with webcasts, podcasts and script libraries.

Public Health Relevance

This R25 will provide continued support for the research education of three pre-doctoral and three postdoctoral participants studying statistical methods for genetic studies of substance use abuse and dependence. The Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University is the center for a wide array of statistical methodology and applied substance abuse research projects. Faculty will mentor project participants in the development of novel methods to meet the tremendous data analytic challenges being posed by new technologies such as next generation sequencing and neuroimaging.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Type
Education Projects (R25)
Project #
5R25DA026119-09
Application #
9267956
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZDA1)
Program Officer
Weinberg, Naimah Z
Project Start
2008-09-30
Project End
2019-04-30
Budget Start
2017-05-01
Budget End
2018-04-30
Support Year
9
Fiscal Year
2017
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Virginia Commonwealth University
Department
Psychiatry
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
105300446
City
Richmond
State
VA
Country
United States
Zip Code
23298
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Bornovalova, Marina A; Verhulst, Brad; Webber, Troy et al. (2018) Genetic and environmental influences on the codevelopment among borderline personality disorder traits, major depression symptoms, and substance use disorder symptoms from adolescence to young adulthood. Dev Psychopathol 30:49-65
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Do, Elizabeth K; Maes, Hermine H (2017) Genotype × Environment Interaction in Smoking Behaviors: A Systematic Review. Nicotine Tob Res 19:387-400
Zahery, Mahsa; Maes, Hermine H; Neale, Michael C (2017) CSOLNP: Numerical Optimization Engine for Solving Non-linearly Constrained Problems. Twin Res Hum Genet 20:290-297
Pritikin, Joshua N; Rappaport, Lance M; Neale, Michael C (2017) Likelihood-based confidence intervals for a parameter with an upper or lower bound. Struct Equ Modeling 24:395-401
Verhulst, Brad (2017) A Power Calculator for the Classical Twin Design. Behav Genet 47:255-261
Verhulst, Brad; Maes, Hermine H; Neale, Michael C (2017) GW-SEM: A Statistical Package to Conduct Genome-Wide Structural Equation Modeling. Behav Genet 47:345-359

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