Deriving a de novo adolescent addiction treatment from developmental brain data

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PROJECT SUMMARY This administrative supplement within Dr. Feldstein Ewing’s Mid-Career Investigator Award (K24) aims to support PI Feldstein Ewing’s development of innovative, translational (clinical + imaging) research in adolescent alcohol treatment. The K24 protects time to facilitate her mentorship of emerging underrepresented investigators. Her career development and mentorship aims are tightly and synergistically linked to advance planned research aims. Dr. Feldstein Ewing’s 5-10 year research plan is to develop more efficacious treatment for adolescents who struggle with hazardous use. Dr. Feldstein Ewing believes that advances from this area are most likely to stem from integrative approaches that directly query the developing brain, and aims to tailor articulated interventions that are responsive to that very specific period of neural development. Translational research in adolescent addiction is very labor intensive. K24 research funding provides Dr. Feldstein Ewing with protected time from the call of administrative duties, which are often highly time intensive, but unfortunately do not advance research or mentorship. Thus, protected time available within this mechanism facilitates precisely the type of protected coverage requisite for freeing up the investigator to learn more advanced quantitative methods that are being used to maximize existing data that Dr. Feldstein Ewing already has, to propel the field forward in terms of developing novel interventions for high-need adolescents struggling with hazardous use. This protection also facilitates protected time for Dr. Feldstein Ewing to engage and involve underrepresented mentees at every stage of this process. As with many other academic centers, without this K24, this type of protected research/mentorship time would not otherwise be available to Dr. Feldstein Ewing. This coverage is crucial for advancing innovations in adolescent treatment, at a critical juncture where the resources and opportunity are available for this work to be done. This is a high area of interest and need for NIAAA; this K24 will launch a new field of scientists in this domain of adolescent alcohol and addiction research, and its intervention.