BIOLOGICAL BASES OF ALCOHOLISM

描述：该计划为博士。和博士后学生将培养专家谁将能够进行临床前研究的水平，从分子到行为的生物机制的发展，维持和消除酗酒。 俄勒冈州健康科学大学的20名研究生将培训博士后研究员和研究生，他们将被录取进入行为神经科学或神经科学课程。 培训将包括基础科学的坚实课程基础，酒精和其他滥用药物药理学的具体培训，接触人类酗酒的临床和心理社会方面，以及广泛和持续参与基础研究。 我们的培训机会的重点是参与问题饮酒和酒精中毒的病因学的生物过程。我们的总体方法是跨学科的，强调遗传，分子，生理，药理和心理/行为过程。 受训人员处理的研究问题分为四个一般领域：（a）酒精和药物反应的遗传基础，（B）酒精和药物奖赏的已知和未知决定因素，自我施用酒精和药物的生物学基础，（d）压力和酒精中毒和药物滥用的生物学。 这些领域反映了使用行为，系统级和细胞/分子方法的参与教师的研究兴趣和专业知识。他们共同的生物行为观点与越来越多的证据相一致，这些证据表明，许多形式的人类酒精中毒最好通过遗传和环境因素之间的相互作用来理解。教师合作的领域包括：酒精和药物反应的遗传决定因素的研究;神经内分泌和神经活性类固醇参与酒精的影响;多巴胺能，GABA能和多巴胺能系统参与酒精和药物的影响的研究;学习和未学习的决定因素对酒精和其他药物的反应，特别是他们的奖励效果和自我管理;以及对酒精和所有主要滥用药物类别的敏感性、耐受性和依赖性/戒断现象的研究。

DESCRIPTION: This program for Ph.D. and postdoctoral students will train specialists who will be able to conduct preclinical research at levels ranging from the molecular to the behavioral on biological mechanisms underlying the development, maintenance, and elimination of alcoholism. Twenty members of the graduate faculty of the Oregon Health Sciences University will train postdoctoral research fellows and graduate students matriculating into programs in Behavioral Neuroscience or Neuroscience. Training will include firm curricular grounding in the basic sciences, specific training in the pharmacology of alcohol and other abused drugs, exposure to clinical and psychosocial aspects of human alcoholism, and extensive and continuous participation in basic research. The focus of our training opportunities is on biological processes involved in the etiology of problem drinking and alcoholism. Our general approach is interdisciplinary, emphasizing genetic, molecular, physiological, pharmacological and psychological/ behavioral processes. The research questions addressed by trainees fall into four general areas: (a) genetic bases for alcohol and drug responses, (b) learned and unlearned determinants of alcohol and drug reward, biological bases for self-administration of alcohol and drugs, and (d) stress and the biology of alcoholism and drug abuse. These areas reflect the research interests and expertise of a participating faculty using behavioral, systems-level, and cellular/molecular methods. Their shared biobehavioral perspective is consistent with growing evidence indicating that many forms of human alcoholism are best understood in terms of an interaction between genetic and environmental factors. Areas of faculty collaboration include: studies of genetic determinants of alcohol and drug responses; neuroendocrine and neuroactive steroid participation in alcohol's effects; studies of dopaminergic, gabaergic and glutaminergic systems involved in alcohol and drug effects; study of learned and unlearned determinants of responses to alcohol and other drugs, particularly their rewarding effects and self-administration; and studies of sensitivity, tolerance, and dependence/withdrawal phenomena for alcohol and all major classes of drugs of abuse.