BEHAVIOR,BIOLOGY, AND CHEMISTRY: TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH IN ADDICTION

This renewal application requests 3 additional years of support to continue a highly successful internationalscientific meeting entitled Behavior, Biology and Chemistry: Translational Research in Addiction (BBC) that hasbeen held annually in San Antonio Texas since 2009. Several standing committees organize the 2-day meetingthat is attended by a broad spectrum of addiction researchers, from high school students to graduate students,postdoctoral fellows, and established senior investigators, from medicinal chemists to psychiatrists and socialworkers. A rich diversity in attendees (up to 30% from underrepresented populations) provides excellent rolemodels for young scientists and gives them a unique opportunity to present their research to a sophisticatedaudience in a venue where the threshold for presentation is lower than most meetings. The BBC meetingpromotes translational approaches to solving problems in addiction by stimulating discussion of novel researchareas and by fostering new collaborations. The meeting and a satellite workshop (Pathways to Careers inScience) also provide career development training for the next generation of addiction researchers. Eachmeeting comprises a plenary symposium on a specific addiction topic or drug target, three additional invitedlectures including one by a medicinal chemist and one by a clinician, oral communication sessions (severalthat are exclusively for presentations by trainees), a poster session, as well as oral and poster competitions fortrainees. Each year the proceedings of the symposia have been published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.As many as 60 trainees per year have received travel stipends to attend the meeting in addition to a specialtravel award for a young faculty member (Maharaj Ticku Memorial Travel Fellowship for New Investigators). Inaddition to financial support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, BBC meetings have received significantfinancial (>$254,000) and institutional support from the University of Texas Health Science Center at SanAntonio, other universities, and individuals. Future BBC meetings will retain the successful approach andformat of prior BBC meetings unless changes are warranted based on feedback received from an annual post-meeting online survey. The specific aims of the BBC meeting are as follows: 1) provide a low-threshold, low-cost opportunity for young scientists to present their data, give oral presentations, and interact with experts inthe addiction field; 2) encourage young scientists from underrepresented populations to participate in the BBCmeeting and to pursue a career in addiction research; 3) convene experts in a novel or emerging area ofaddiction research and generate an archival proceeding (publication in a peer-reviewed journal) of theirsymposium; and 4) stimulate discussion and collaboration among the broad range of researchers andclinicians working in the addiction arena to facilitate innovative approaches for developing new medications.