Office of the Clinical Director

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In 2022/2023, the Office of the Clinical Director (OCD), Intramural Research Program (IRP), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), NIH provides clinical research support to (6) independent Laboratories/Clinical investigators, (4 Tenure Track/Unit Chiefs and 2 Senior Investigators/Branch Chiefs) and a recently formerly Core/Facility Head. In January 2022, both the Clinical Director and the Deputy Clinical Director stepped down and an Acting Clinical Director and Acting Deputy Clinical Director were appointed; both positions are now permanent appointments. Operational changes including personnel and workflow are currently underway including the transfer of participant recruitment to be managed internally following a non-renewal of a contract agreement with an outside vendor. The current Clinical research portfolio at the NIDA IRP includes a wide variety of collaborative investigation that focus on: Safety and efficacy of new treatments for addiction. Factors that impact drug taking and relapse. Application of MRI-based structural and functional imaging to elucidate acute and chronic drug effects and their consequences on cognitive processes. Molecular genetic bases of individual differences in vulnerability to develop dependence on an addictive substance. Development of advanced functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging/spectroscopy techniques. Structural MRI techniques to assess tissue integrity related to brain dysfunction. Transcranial magnetic Stimulation (TMS) in the elucidation and treatment of addictive disorders. Mobile health applications for real-time in-the-field addiction treatment interventions. The vision for the clinical portfolio of the NIDA IRP is to build a highly translational program that conducts cutting-edge addiction research aimed at improving our understanding of mechanisms related to addiction and developing new treatments for patients with substance use disorder, ranging from new behavioral approaches to new pharmacological and neuromodulation-based treatments. To implement this vision, among other actions, the following are critical goals under way: (1) create a unified and harmonized clinical portfolio; (2) build, foster, and support collaborative projects among the NIDA clinical PIs and preclinical PIs in the NIDA IRP; (3) build, foster, and support collaborative projects between the clinical PIs of the NIDA IRP and other clinical and preclinical PIs in other Institutes/Centers, Academia, and private sector; (4) make the clinical portfolio of the NIDA IRP a central component of the whole NIH IRP, by increasing its NIH-wide central role and visibility (including at the NIH main campus in Bethesda) via strong and longstanding scientific and clinical collaborations, as well as equally strong and longstanding collaborative regulatory, management and administrative efforts between the NIDA IRP and other NIH ICs/Centers/Offices; (5) serve as an exemplar of how to promote and sustain a culture of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA); (6) increase collaborations with the local Universities and boost community outreach engagement initiatives in the DC-Maryland-VA (DMV) area; and (7) create Academia-NIH joint clinical training program collaborations and contribute to addiction-related education/training for the future generations of clinicians and clinical scientists to advance addiction science and medicine. In summary, the vision for the NIDA IRP clinical portfolio is to build, foster, fortify and support a collaborative group of labs that span translational research via diverse approaches and methodologies, serving our collective goal to advance addiction science and medicine. This vision includes innovative clinical addiction studies, further corroborated via bidirectional translational projects to/from basic science, and further expanded via large population studies. The goal of the CD and their OCD team is to provide scientific clinical leadership and provide oversight, guidance, mentoring, and support aimed to strengthen an outstanding patient-driven group of scientists and clinicians with diverse and synergistic backgrounds, ranging from medicine and experimental psychology to neuroimaging, neuroscience, and health communication.