Center on Intersystem Regulation by Drugs of Abuse

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application is for the renewal of the NIDA P30 "Center on Intersystem Regulation by Drugs of Abuse" at Temple University. The Center has been successful in catalyzing interdisciplinary research, enhancing productivity, and creating synergy. The Core facilities have enabled individual researchers to extend their funded projects, brought new researchers into the field of substance abuse, and created a scientifically exciting atmosphere that resulted in successful recruitment of new faculty. This renewal application requests support for five Research Support Cores: Animal Models and Behavioral Testing, Biochemical Pharmacology, Cell and Immunology, Integrative Pharmacology, and Molecular Biology Cores, as well as Pilot Project Core and the Administrative Core. Changes in this renewal application include restructuring the Cores, addition of new key investigators who bring added expertise, and additional state-of-the-art innovative technologies, all of which will add major strengths to the Center. The NIDA P30 Core Center will support primarily preclinical research on drugs of abuse and addiction, with translational applications. Major integrative themes of the Center are 1) mechanisms of addiction and identification of novel therapeutic targets; 2) effects of drugs of abuse on HIV infection and other endpoints such as pain and behavior; 3) neuroimmune interactions, including cross-talk between opioids, cannabinoids and chemokines as related to pain, inflammation, and HIV; and 4) analysis of drug combinations. The Cores and their investigators have the ability to attack research problems from multiple levels, with expertise in molecular, cellular, immunological, pharmacological and behavioral approaches. This unique aspect of the Center encourages multi-disciplinary collaborations to best address novel hypotheses and significantly advance individual research programs. The NIDA P30 Core Center will provide cutting-edge technologies to the 25 NIH-funded research projects identified in the proposal as related to NIDA's mission, as well as our NIDA-supported trainees. The Center has, and will continue to, enhance synergy and productivity, and to stimulate innovative scientific discoveries that will result in new knowledge to bear on substance abuse.