World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics with Emphasis on Genes for Drug Abuse

描述(申请人提供)：药物滥用是一种严重的致残性精神疾病，已被证明具有遗传成分。目前的建议是提供资金，以便利培训新的年轻调查人员，他们希望从事以药物滥用遗传学为重点的研究。这将在世界精神病学遗传学大会(WCPG)2007、2008、2009、2010和2011年会议的计划内完成。WCPG是一年一度的国际会议，吸引了积极研究严重精神疾病的遗传机制的年轻和资深研究人员。四个全天，之前有一天的教育课程，以便利新的调查人员和更广泛的公众受众学习适用于这一领域的最新研究结果和方法。主要会议包括具有这类研究所需领域专门知识的资深科学家的全体演讲，以及关于新的、前所未有的关于与精神疾病有关的广泛遗传主题的数据的报告的会议。因此，对精神病学遗传学感兴趣的多个学科的科学家聚集在一起，通过讨论新数据和制定未来合作研究的计划，促进该领域的进展。这些会议在北美和欧洲交替举行，在亚洲的频率较低。这项提议的目的将是向从事药物滥用遗传学方面工作的青年研究人员和学生提供旅行研究金，提供关于这一专题的一段时间的教育，并支付一名全体演讲者关于将促进这一领域研究的相关专题的费用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Drug abuse is a serious disabling mental illness that has been shown to have a genetic component. This current proposal is for the provision of funds to facilitate the training of new young investigators who want to pursue research with a focus on the genetics of drug abuse. This will be done within the program of the World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics (the WCPG) for the 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 meetings. The WCPG is an annual international meeting that attracts both young and senior researchers actively pursuing the genetic mechanisms for serious mental illnesses. Four full-days, preceded by an educational day of courses to facilitate the learning of new investigators and a wider public audience about the latest findings and methods for research applicable to this field. The main meeting consists of plenary lectures from senior scientists with expertise in areas that are needed for this type of research and of sessions that consist of reports on new, never before presented data on a wide-range of genetic topics related to psychiatric illness. Thus scientists of multiple disciplines with an interest in psychiatric genetics come together to facilitate progress in the field with discussions about new data and formulation of plans for future collaborative studies. The meetings are held in Northern America and Europe in alternating years and less frequently in Asia. The Aims of this proposal will be to provide travel fellowships to young investigators and students working on aspects of the genetics of drug abuse, to provide a section of the educational day on this topic and to pay expenses for a plenary speaker on a relevant topic that will facilitate research in this field.