The NIDA P30 Core Center, entitled ?Center on Intersystem Regulation by Drugs of Abuse?, provides outstanding scientific expertise and resources to NIH investigators in order to advance research productivity and innovations in addiction research. The Center has proven to be a catalyst for interdisciplinary studies and has created synergy between investigators from diverse disciplines. The major themes of the Center that will be pursued in this 5 year renewal include: 1) mechanisms of addiction and identification of novel targets with therapeutic potential; 2) effects of drugs of abuse on HIV infection; 3) neuroimmune interactions, including cross-talk between classical neurotransmitter systems and chemokines/cytokines as related to addiction, pain, inflammation and HIV; 4) pain and analgesia with the goal of identifying opioid-sparing treatments for pain. Research is carried out on a broad spectrum of substances including opioids, cannabinoids, psychostimulants, nicotine and alcohol. The Center consists of five Research Support Cores: The Animal Core for Addiction Related Behaviors, Biochemical Pharmacology Core, Cell and Immunology Core, Integrated Physiological Systems and Pain Core, and the Molecular Biology Core, in addition to the Administrative and Pilot Project Cores. The Core personnel bring to the Center a broad array of expertise to address scientific questions related to drugs of abuse, addiction, pain and HIV from multiple approaches leading to research synergy. This unique aspect of the P30 Center at Temple encourages collaborations that extend beyond a single discipline to address novel hypotheses and significantly accelerate the progress of individual research programs. Implementation of several new state-of-the-art approaches are proposed in this renewal application that will add major strengths to the Center. The NIDA P30 Core Center will provide cutting-edge technologies to expand the impact of NIH-funded research projects related to NIDA's mission through collaborations nation-wide. In addition, research training and mentoring of early career scientists will continue to be an important function. The Center will serve as a national resource to stimulate innovative scientific discoveries that will result in new knowledge to bear on substance abuse.
Substance abuse and addiction continue to be major public health problems with enormous personal, society, and public health costs. The goal of the NIDA P30 Center at Temple University is to support high quality, innovative research on drugs of abuse, addiction, HIV, and pain. The Core facilities will provide state-of-the-art resources and expertise to enhance and expand the scope of research in the field, to promote research synergy, and provide training for future generations of researchers.
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