Component VI will support pilot projects. Its broad objectives are, first, to permit the center's investigators to rapidly explore new research possibilities with small-scale pilot projects, and second, to draw other Colorado researchers into this field by supporting pilot studies on topics closely related to our main thesis. The pilot projects will collect and analyze data to support subsequent RO1 grant applications. Pilot projects must be consistent with the aims of the center, address clinical or genetic issues related to drug dependence in conduct disorder or antisocial personality disorder, and may range in technique from molecular genetics to clinical description. Studies of treatments will be considered for the Early Treatment Trials component rather than the Pilot Projects Component. The center Executive Committee, made up of all of the center's PI's, will select pilot projects, assuring that the projects will collaboratively interface with other components of the center. As examples, we describe two pilots that can begin as soon as funding is received. They also exemplify the kind of investigators we aim to support with pilot funds. One PI is a Chief Resident in Child Psychiatry who would use data from his proposed pilot project to support a FIRST Award application on drug dependence in adolescents with conduct disorder. The second PI is a seasoned investigator in our center who will use data from his pilot to develop an HIV prevention procedure for drug-dependent antisocial youths. He then will apply for an RO1 grant to test the new intervention.
Specific aims of this component are: (a) To support over five years at least six nontreatment pilot projects on themes closely related to the unifying thesis of this center. (b) To generate from those projects pilot data supporting at least three grant applications to NIDA. (c ) Through those six pilot projects to draw at least two new investigators into studies of antisocial drug dependence. One example is the resident's proposal to examine in youths with conduct disorder and stimulant drug dependence a possible link with earlier stimulant treatment of attention-deficient/hyperactivity disorder. (d) To permit established investigators in this center and throughout our region to rapidly pursue exciting new findings related to antisocial drug dependence with small-scale pilot projects. An example is Dr. Booth's proposed pilot investigation which may lead to a testable prevention model for HIV risk behaviors among adolescents with conduct disorder and substance dependence.
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