The consortium Integrative Neuroscience Initiative on Alcoholism: Stress and Chronic Alcohol Interactions (a.k.a. INIAstress) is a collection of highly integrative and innovative projects and cores. The overarching goal of INIAstress is elucidating the changes in brain circuitry and mechanisms that underlie how chronic alcohol alters response to stress, which in turn can facilitate the transition from moderate/social drinking to heavy/hazardous drinking and associated problems. Through this characterization we have helped to define factors that contribute to an individual's risk for the development of alcoholism, revealed underlying mechanisms and conditions that promote excessive and harmful drinking, and forged progress towards discovering novel, more effective, and tailored treatment strategies. We continue our cross-species translational investigation and we will integrate this information to provide novel and valuable insights into diagnostic, prevention, and individualized treatment options for those suffering with alcohol use disorder (AUD) as well as co-morbidity with stress-related disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorders. Collectively, these collaborative studies directly integrate behavioral, endocrine, neural, and genetic data from animal models to humans within a scope of expertise and thematic inquiry that would not be possible using more traditional grant mechanisms. As the lead application, the Administrative Resource Core will provide scientific leadership on the consortium's main goals and serve as a centralized administrative structure to facilitate and coordinate the overall management, direction and integration of research activities within the INIAstress Consortium.
This Administrative Resource Core of the consortium Integrative Neuroscience Initiative on Alcoholism: Stress and Chronic Alcohol Interactions (a.k.a. INIAstress) will provide oversight, direction and coordination of the 8 research projects and 3 research cores that collectively address brain circuitry and mechanisms underlying the reciprocal relationship of chronic alcohol and stress reactivity, with the overall goal of identifying new targets for effective pharmacotherapies to treat alcohol use disorders.
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