Addictions are heritable, polygenic and multifactorial disorders that pose substantial burden to persons and communities. A biomedical approach to substance use and addictions, encompassing genetics, neuroscience, neuroimaging, pharmacology, statistics, biology, informatics and psychiatry/psychology, along with access to multi-modal data, provides a strong foundation upon which translational studies aimed at understanding the neurobiological underpinnings of drug use and misuse are built. This competing continuation requests another 5 years (years 31-35) of support for 6 postdoctoral training slots that will provide research training and career development to 3 MDs and 3 PhDs pursuing postdoctoral research with 27 preceptors across 7 departments (Psychiatry, Anesthesiology, Genetics, Neuroscience, Neurology, Psychological & Brain Sciences, Biomedical Engineering). The fellowship will typically encompass a 3-year period for MDs, and a 2-3 year period for PhDs, depending on the scope of the project. Co-led by Drs. Agrawal and Moron-Concepcion (with complementary expertise in human and animal neurobiology of addictions), the Biomedical Research Training in Drug Abuse (BRTD) is the only T32 which offers biomedical addictions training, with an emphasis on neurobiology, at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), which is home to 20 additional postdoctoral institutional training grants. BRTD has a long history of recruiting highly qualified trainees (1-2 first-authored publications at entry) and securing their continued academic success. Prior trainees are now tenured faculty members at WUSTL and elsewhere, science officers for pharmaceutical or biomedical entrepreneurial companies, and are themselves mentoring the next cohort of scientists. The 27 preceptors are NIH-funded investigators with a history of mentorship in addiction-related biomedical research. The trainees devote 70% of their effort towards mentored research. The remaining effort is devoted to didactics (coursework, workshops and seminars) that advance the trainees' breadth of knowledge and provide new skills (e.g., programming, bioinformatics, data mining) that keep apace of accelerating big data and computational approaches. In addition, trainees undertake career development activities in science communication, NIH PI-ship and diversity in neuroscience, as well as required instruction in Responsible Conduct of Research (including content specific to addiction) and Reproducibility in Science. Recognizing that trainees may choose different career trajectories, they may also engage in grant writing and mock NIH review, teaching, public speaking or entrepreneurship training. This renewal maintains our strong emphasis on neurobiology, while adding in novel scientific components (greater emphasis on multi-modal research, e.g., genetics and human neuroimaging, neuro-pharmacology and genetics) as well as a robust career development program that rounds out scientific training. Preceptors with new expertise (including participation of Biomedical Engineering) and new course offerings in data science add fresh perspectives to our objective of training highly competitive addiction researchers.

The past five years have been transformative in our understanding of the neurobiology of the addictive and therapeutic potential of drugs of abuse. Given the highly polygenic and multi-factorial nature of drug use and misuse, and the growing emphasis on incorporating neuroscience into precision medicine, there is an immediate need for young investigators with training in biomedical approaches. Led by scientists who are deeply invested in human (Dr. Agrawal) and animal (Dr. Moron-Concepcion) addiction neurobiology, the competing continuation of this training grant will continue to provide research training in genetics, neuroscience, neuroimaging, neuropharmacology, statistics/computation and biology as well as career development to 6 postdoctoral scholars with MDs or PhDs. Situated within the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine, and supported by 27 preceptors, this T32 will leverage the extensive array of coursework, workshops and seminars available across the medical and arts and sciences campuses and rich assortment of large datasets available to trainees.