The applicant requests $2,996,175 to build a dedicated two-floor research facility entitled """"""""START Center"""""""" (17,225 sq. ft.) at the UTHSCSA. The START Center's mission is to provide an outstanding addiction and health disparities research and research training environment; in partnership with the Hispanic Center of Excellence; fusing collaborative neuroscience, behavioral, and community-based research into the underpinnings of addictive disorders; medication development to treat these disorders; and addressing minority health disparities in these disorders. Specifically, plans are to: 1) develop a centralized state-of-the-art research facility thereby forging increased interaction between scientists and increasing their productivity and efficiency; 2) provide contiguous animal and human laboratories for programmatic medications development, and increased understanding of mechanistic processes associated with both the disease states and the therapeutic medications; 3) provide biochemical and molecular genetics laboratories to support the pre-clinical and clinical neurobehavioral research, thereby inter-weaving research knowledge in these areas; 4) provide a state-of-the-art clinical research center for conducting large National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored studies with centralized core statistical, administrative, and research support; 5) expand the research training program of the Hispanic Center of Excellence at UTHSCSA through direct collaboration with START Center investigators; 6) expand community-based minority health and health disparities research pertaining to addictive disorders in partnership with the Hispanic Center of Excellence; and 7) enhance collaborative preclinical and clinical neuroimaging studies in the Research Imaging Center at UTHSCSA. The START Center's research addresses national needs in the areas of addiction and mental health. The START Center will greatly benefit the research goals of sixteen funded researchers at UTHSCSA with inadequate space who are currently housed at separate sites on campus. The START Center will enable recruitment of three new faculty critical to the development of the program. Consolidation of START Center investigators within this facility will benefit students, fellows, physicians, and other health workers including those affiliated with the Hispanic Center of Excellence. The Principal Investigator (PI) will be the Associate Dean for Research of the Medical School, Anthony J. Infante, M.D. The Project Coordinator will be Bankole A. Johnson, M.D., Ph.D. The University will contribute 50 percent of the projected costs.
