This application requests continued support for a Postdoctoral Training Program, now in its 25th year, designed to produce well-trained independent researchers in the area of alcohol abuse and alcoholism. Funds are requested to support 8 fellows per year (levels 0-2), with the average duration of support being two years. This multi-disciplinary program has three broad areas of training: pharmacology, genetics, and behavior. These areas are covered by 30 well-funded training faculty, who focus both on basic and clinical alcohol/drug abuse research. The majority of the faculty currently on the grant will continue to participate. However, 13 new training faculty - some more junior and some senior in rank - have been added. A number of units within the Denver and Boulder campuses of the University of Colorado are involved: the Departments of Pharmacology, Psychiatry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Psychology and Division of Clinical Pharmacology; the Institute for Behavioral Genetics; the NIAAA-funded Alcohol Research Center (ARC); and the NIDA-funded Center on Antisocial Drug Dependence: Genetics & Treatment. Trainees with doctoral degrees are recruited from a broad range of disciplines. Concerted efforts have been made to recruit trainees from under represented racial/ethnic groups and to contribute to longer-term programs to "fill the pipeline". Trainees work primarily in one lab, but collaborative interactions with other preceptors and trainees are strongly encouraged. All of the preceptors use state-of-the-art pharmacological, genetic and/or behavioral approaches. Training in quantitative and molecular genetics, combined with a broad range of pharmacological approaches, allows the fellows to dissect the molecular, cellular and genetic bases for behavioral reactions to drugs and the environment. Another important characteristic of this Training Program is the opportunity to participate in interactions between basic science and clinical practice. Contact with other faculty and trainees through a regular seminar series; ARC retreats; and various courses, including Ethics in Research, complete the training environment. Trainees are also encouraged to write individual NRSAs and present their work in local seminars, as well as at national and international meetings. Through this Training Program, fellows be-come familiar with behavioral pharmacogenetics as a discipline and its various approaches used in solving important problems related to alcohol actions and alcoholism. Past trainees from this program have been very successful, and a number are continuing to make significant contributions in the alcohol and drug abuse fields.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter