Addiction is a chronic, relapsing brain disorder. While treatment can work to decrease morbidity and mortality associated with this disorder, a larger armamentarium of effective and accessible treatments for addiction is needed to significantly reduce the public health burden of addictive diseases. The present application requests support to develop a P30 Core Center in the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in response to RFA-OD-09-005 [Supporting New Faculty Recruitment to Enhance Research Resources through Biomedical Research Core Centers]. The Center for Addiction Research (CAR) at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) and several regional institutions comprise the """"""""Core Center for Translational Addiction Sciences"""""""" (CCTAS). The CCTAS is uniquely positioned to create and integrate new knowledge, perspectives and tools across the boundaries of core strengths in chemistry, animal models, cellular and molecular biology, biomedical imaging and clinical science. We propose to recruit new faculty in medicinal chemistry, model genetics organisms (i.e., Drosophila), and clinical neurobiology to exploit this knowledge to discover new therapeutic approaches to addiction. The primary goal of the CCTAS is to mentor new faculty scientists to develop as independent translational scientists and to encourage their lifelong commitment to the search for better treatments for drug addiction. The CCTAS will assure faculty development through providing individualized and structured mentoring in a rich intellectual environment conducive for investigations in translational addiction sciences. With the recruitment of new faculty in chemistry, animal models and clinical neurobiology, we will make strides in creating new candidate molecules for medication and vaccine development, delve into the genetics of these disorders, and move our research advances closer to the patient bedside with the ultimate goal to improve lives. This P30 is responsive to NIDA's areas of interest in small molecule development for substance-related disorders, biomarkers, genetics, and vaccines and immunotherapies.
New effective, accessible modalities for the treatment of drug addiction are desperately needed. We propose to recruit new faculty under the auspices of this P30 who will complement and expand an institutional community of trans-disciplinary scientists focused on translational discovery research for additive disorders. Our scientific mission is to exploit modern knowledge of addiction biology to discover new therapeutic approaches to improve the health status of affected individuals.
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