On behalf of the Summer Neuropeptide Conference, request is being made from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to support several competitive student travel awards to the 2002 Summer Neuropeptide Conference to be held June 29-July 3, 2002 at Marco Island, Florida. Specifically, we are requesting funds in the amount of $4,750 to help defray meeting expenses of several graduate student and postdoctoral trainees who will participate in the conference and interact with established leaders in fields related to the mission of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The title of the NIDA-related symposium at the meeting is """"""""Neuropeptides and Drug Addition"""""""", and includes investigators whose research is currently funded by NIDA. This symposium is designed to present the latest state-of-the-art research on the role of neuropeptides in mechanisms of drug addiction and withdrawal. This will be an invaluable opportunity to expose student and junior neuroscience researchers to senior scientists actively engaged in NIDA-related research. The Summer Neuropeptide Conference, now in its twelfth year, has become one of the premier international meetings for neuropeptide research. The conference highlights major new advances in neuropeptide research and attracts a good mixture of senior and junior participants from academia and industry from throughout the world. A significant focus of recent meetings is to include sessions related to peptides and drug abuse, and this has been done again for the 2002 conference. Active participation by graduate and postdoctoral trainees, as well as by women and minority scientists, is strongly encouraged. The format of the conference involves morning and evening symposia, a poster session, a conference banquet, and a plenary lecture by a distinguished scientist. This format, coupled with the informal setting, provides an ideal forum for the exchange of current information and the development of new collaborations among the participants.
