Behavior, Biology, and Chemistry: Translational Research in Addiction

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This revised R13 application requests support for a meeting, entitled Behavior, Biology and Chemistry: Translational Research in Addiction (BBC), to be held annually in San Antonio in 2011-2013. The 2-day meeting continues highly successful BBC meetings in 2009 and 2010 that were attended by a diverse group of addiction researchers, from undergraduate students to senior scientists and encompassing a wide range of disciplines, from molecular biology to psychiatry. BBC meetings receive a high level of financial and institutional support from the hosting university (University of Texas Health Science Center) as well as other universities. This transdisciplinary mixture of junior and senior investigators, pre- and post-graduate students provides role models for young scientists while at the same time gives them an opportunity to present results from their own research in a context where there is a lower threshold for presentation, compared with most national meetings. The transdisciplinary and translational theme of the BBC meeting will foster new scientific initiatives and promote thinking that is outside the constraints of traditional disciplines. The format of the meeting contributes to training a new generation of biomedical researchers and, in the process, provides an intensive exposure to new and exciting topics in addiction research. A single symposium at each meeting will bring together experts in a specific area to provide a state-of-the-art overview of an important issue in addiction research; the remainder of the meeting is open to any topic in addiction biology. The meeting includes open communications (two sessions for student presentations) and a poster session. Invited speakers will make presentations that bridge chemistry, biology and behavior in addiction research. The specific aims of this meeting are as follows: I) facilitate interactions among chemists, biologists and behavioral scientists, thereby stimulating cross-fertilization of ideas and conceptualizations among disciplines; II) provide an attractive and affordable venue for young scientists, especially underrepresented minorities and women, in the addiction field to present their research and to learn about state-of-the-art research on the behavioral biology of addiction; and III) provide a freely available electronic archive of the plenary symposium and other keynote lectures.