About Event
This two-day virtual conference focuses on translational aspects of addiction research among chemists, biologists, and behavioral scientists. The diversity of participants and attendees at this meeting (undergraduate students to senior faculty, chemists to psychiatrists) provides a unique venue for networking among different disciplines and in so doing promotes new and innovative approaches to medications development in addictions biology. The meeting provides a stimulating environment for young scientists who are strongly encouraged to present their work and interact with senior scientists. The BBC meeting has served as a “launch pad” for many young, innovative investigators to join the ever-growing world of SUD research.
2012 Featured Speakers
David Nichols, PhDPurdue University Topic: Multidisciplinary approaches to the study of the 5-HT2A receptor |
John Grabowski, PhDUniversity of Minnesota Topic: Harm reduction: substitution pharmacotherapy for substance use disorders 'I want a new drug’ |
Phil Skolnick, PhDNational Institute on Drug Abuse, NIH Topic: Developing medications to treat substance use disorders: why haven’t we been more successful? |
Plenary Symposium
Relapse to drug taking: focus on corticotropin-releasing factor
High relapse rates during abstinence are a pervasive problem in drug addiction treatment. Relapse is often associated with stress exposure, which can provoke a subjective state of drug craving that can also be demonstrated under controlled laboratory conditions. Stress-induced relapse and craving in humans can be modeled in mice, rats and monkeys using a reinstatement model in which drug-taking behaviors are extinguished and then reinstated by acute exposure to certain stressors. The goal of our symposium is to provide an overview on translational research efforts based on the reinstatement model and other animal models, with a particular emphasis on the potential clinical utility of corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF) receptor antagonists.
Symposium Speakers
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Yavin Shaham, PhDNational Institute on Drug Abuse, NIH |
Translational research based on the reinstatement model |
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Eric Zorrilla, PhDThe Scripps Research Institute |
Progress in CRF1 antagonist development: A target at a crossroad |
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Markus Heilig, PhDNational Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, NIH |
The CRH1 receptor in alcoholism: Target validation, candidate selection and early human translation |
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Harriet de Wit, PhDUniversity of Chicago |
Developing translational models of behavior: Risks and rewards |