Indiana University Bloomington (IUB) Center for Cannabis, Cannabinoids, and Addiction (C3A)

We are proposing to establish the IU Bloomington Center for Cannabis, Cannabinoid, and Addiction (IUB-C3A) as a NIDA Core Center for Excellence to serve addiction researchers both in the central Midwest and across the nation. This Center will offer core services to further our understanding of fundamental brain processes leading to or following the use of addictive drugs, particularly cannabis. The IUB-C3A will consist of two service cores, a pilot project core, and an administrative core. The Administrative Core will provide a welldefined structure for efficient center management, for public outreach, for organizing the Center’s courses, as well as for preserving and making easily accessible the data generated by the Center’s scientists. The Bioactive Lipid Mediators Core (BLMC) will provide analytical service for detecting cannabinoids and other bioactive lipid mediators in biological samples and run a summer course directed towards undergraduate students interested in STEM careers. The MultiScale Imaging Core (MSIC) will offer services and training across a range of light microscopic imaging modalities. The multiphoton resource of the MSIC will include training and access to longitudinal in vivo imaging of calcium and other sensors (e.g., neuromodulators such as endocannabinoids, dopamine, and serotonin) from very young ages as well as long-range pathway tracing in “cleared” brain specimens. The STORM/confocal resource of the MSIC will offer users the opportunity to perform correlative structure/function studies from the macro- to nanoscale level and will also offer courses on these techniques. Both cores will emphasize innovation and integration of their respective techniques, as outlined in the proposal. The Pilot Project Core will solicit pilot projects from C3A Affiliates and investigators outside of the drug abuse field and mentor them through the process of obtaining data and NIDA support for their research ideas. The PIs for the IUB-C3A have a long history of productive collaborations, including publishing more than sixty papers together and holding several MPI NIH grants. The IUB-C3A is conceptualized as a resource that will offer opportunities for other addiction investigators across the Central Midwest (Southern Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia), a region strongly affected by drug addiction, and across the nation. Through course offerings in lipidomics and super resolution microscopy, the IUB-C3A aims to bring talented individuals into the field of addiction research. We anticipate that they will apply creative directions, rigorous experimental approaches, and novel ways of thinking to a major public health problem. The strong support of Indiana University to this endeavor is evident by generous matching funds for equipment purchases. All of these factors predict that the IUB-C3A will become a regional and national resource for better understanding and developing treatments for addictive disorders and their consequences.