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

描述（由申请人提供）：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，以便利培训希望从事以药物滥用遗传学为重点的研究的新的年轻研究人员。这将在世界精神遗传学大会（WCPG） 2007年、2008年、2009年、2010年和2011年的会议中进行。WCPG是一年一度的国际会议，吸引了积极追求严重精神疾病遗传机制的年轻和资深研究人员。为期四天，在此之前有一天的教育课程，以促进新研究者和更广泛的公众对适用于该领域的最新研究成果和研究方法的学习。主要会议由具有此类研究所需领域专业知识的资深科学家的全体会议和由关于与精神疾病有关的广泛遗传主题的新数据的报告组成的会议组成。因此，对精神病学遗传学感兴趣的多学科科学家聚集在一起，通过讨论新数据和制定未来合作研究计划来促进该领域的进展。会议每隔一年在北美和欧洲举行，在亚洲举行的频率较低。这项建议的目的是向从事药物滥用遗传学各方面工作的年轻研究人员和学生提供旅行研究金，在教育日提供关于这一主题的部分时间，并支付有关主题的全体会议发言人的费用，以促进这一领域的研究。

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.