The Neurobiology of Drug Abuse

One of the keys to developing effective prevention and treatment strategies for substance use disorder is understanding the neurobiological consequences of chronic exposure to drugs of abuse. Such studies must involve multi-disciplinary approaches to examine several different levels of brain function. This is the goal of our current training program, the Neurobiology of Drug Abuse Training Program, which proposes to continue a successful tradition of NIDA training at Wake Forest School of Medicine (WFSM). This program requests funding to train five predoctoral students in a multi-disciplinary program in the neurobiology of drug abuse. The program includes 24 faculty members at WFSM, with research interests spanning molecular biology, receptor pharmacology, brain imaging techniques in humans and non-human primates, electrophysiology, neuronal activity monitoring and behavioral analysis of drug self- administration. The research of the faculty is supported by a significant number of federally funded grants related to the field of substance abuse. The training program is organized around three principal areas of research: Molecular/Cellular Neurobiology, Neurobiological Systems, and Behavioral Neurobiology. The training program offers a specific course in drug abuse covering topics related to each of these three areas. Predoctoral students have a choice of two different Ph.D. degree tracks: Integrated Physiology/Pharmacology and Neuroscience. Although these programs have their own individual requirements, specific drug abuse-related topics are integrated into the standard programs. The training program offers specific seminars and journal clubs for trainees and opportunities for additional substance abuse training. The program also contains specialized components dealing with statistics/data analytics, grant writing, rigor and transparency in research, and ethics in scientific research. Recruitment of students will be aided by the fact that the field of neuroscience is one of the fastest growing disciplines in the biological sciences, and WFSM is undergoing a strong research growth phase. In summary, the Neurobiology of Drug Abuse Training Program not only offers students outstanding opportunities for education and research in the neurobiology of drug abuse but is also a valuable resource for the field of drug abuse by providing trained young investigators capable of independent scientific careers.