Pilot Research Projects Core

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The role of the Pilot Research Project Core (PRPC) will be to oversee and help develop pilot projects that bring new investigators into the Yale/NIDA Neuroproteomics Center, help encourage young investigators in our Center's laboratories embark on careers in substance abuse research, disseminate the Center's core technologies to researchers investigating the neurobiology of addiction who are not yet using neuroproteomics technologies, and expand the technical abilities of the Center. The Center has greatly increased the pool of researchers using proteomic methods at Yale and 7 other institutions, and has become a national resource for proteomic studies of biological aspects of drug addiction. The 19 projects awarded in grant years 11-14 have already resulted in at least 9 publications, 4 abstracts, 13 grants and one pending grant application. In addition, 5 of these awardees already have gone on to independent positions where they are using proteomic approaches. The 4 awards in year 15 will expand the Center's technologies and also will result in novel findings relevant to addiction and brain function. In Aim 1, we will build on this success and solicit new pilot proposals via our web site, Twitter, emails, EAB, and NIDA program officials. The PRPC will encourage applications that propose to apply technologies available from the Cores or to develop new technologies. Applications will be accepted from Center and non-Center investigators expert in substance abuse with interests in initiating research in neuroproteomics, and non-Center investigators with expertise in cell and molecular aspects of neuronal signaling with interests in initiating neuroproteomics research on substance abuse. Applications will be accepted from graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and higher level research staff from these investigators' laboratories. In the current proposal, we have included 4 potential projects, including one Technology Development Pilot, which together with 8 other proposals would be submitted for competitive review if this renewal is funded. In Aim 2, we will continue to have pilot projects reviewed by two senior Yale investigators, including the Director of the Pilot Project Core, as well as two non-Yale reviewers, none of whom have a conflict of interest with the proposals reviewed. Using similar criteria to successful pilots, the submitted proposals will be evaluated based on whether they meet the core mission of the program, as well as on their overall scientific merit. In Aim 3, we will evaluate and track the success of the Pilot Program, through analysis of publications, presentations and grant applications. In Aim 4, each funded project will be mentored by a Center Core staff who is an expert in the technology to be used and who will provide training to the awardee. Further, if the awardee is from a laboratory that does not have experience in drug abuse research, they will be assigned a Center investigator who is highly experienced in drug abuse research who will provide guidance in appropriate models of substance abuse and in experimental design.