This competing continuation application requests 5 years of support for an Institutional National Research Service Award to support multi-disciplinary postdoctoral training in alcoholism research. We request support for four post-doctoral fellows (2 recent PhDs, 1 residency trained psychiatrist, 1 senior scientist or fellowship trained child psychiatrist) for primary training in aspects of alcohol research related to 5 major training areas, (i) gene discovery, (ii) genetic epidemiology and behavior genetics, (iii) developmental psychopathology and longitudinal studies, as well as some aspects of (iv) basic and cognitive neuroscience, and (v) epidemiology, nosology and prevention research. In addition to specialization in a primary discipline, trainees will be encouraged to obtain a sufficient familiarity with at least one other focus area to facilitate fruitful cross disciplinary collaborations in their research careers. The training program will ordinarily be of 3 years duration, reflecting the diverse background of our applicant pool (e.g. psychology, psychiatry, mathematics, behavioral neuroscience, social work), or 2 years for those with pertinent research experience. 1-2-year post-doctoral fellowships are also offered for experienced alcoholism researchers seeking training in a new area of alcoholism research (e.g. human genetics). Trainees will be provided with post-doctoral offices attached to the research suite where major research operations of the Midwest Alcoholism Research Center are based, or in appropriate laboratory space. The training program emphasizes a research apprenticeship model, combining research under the mentorship of one or more experienced research mentors with more formal training through didactic courses, lab rotations or individualized tutorials, and journal clubs. Major strengths of the program are the availability of a large faculty with an extensive program of alcoholism research, representing expertise in many aspects of statistical/ quantitative, molecular and behavioral genetic, epidemiologic and neurobiologic research on alcoholism; the highly productive research environment; the availability of major genetic and epidemiologic data-bases, and access to a large number of ongoing projects, that offer many research options to trainees; the program's location in one of the nation's leading medical schools, allowing trainees to take advantage of a rich array of didactic courses and seminars and research experiences; and the long tradition of successful mentoring and research training of scientists and physician scientists from diverse intellectual backgrounds. ? ?
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