Number 24, April 2009

This E-News is issued every other month to inform the international drug abuse research community about:

• What’s New
• Funding Opportunities
• Research Training and Exchange Programs
• Meetings
• Press Releases From NIDA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Other Items of Interest
• Reading Corner

What’s New

IAS and NIDA Establish a New HIV and Drug Abuse Fellowship

NIDA and the International AIDS Society (IAS) have established a fellowship program that focuses on HIV research related to drug abuse. The goal of the program is to contribute to advances in the scientific understanding of drug abuse and HIV, while fostering multinational research on the topic. The fellowship program will offer two awards of $75,000 each: one to a junior HIV and drug abuse scientist for an 18-month post-doctoral training fellowship at a leading research institute in the field; and one to a well-established HIV scientist, not currently active in the drug abuse field, for an 8-month period of professional development on HIV and drug abuse. While applications from across the globe are welcome, scientists from Eastern Europe and Central Asia are strongly encouraged to apply. Prospective fellows must meet certain qualification criteria, have an appropriate mentor, and submit an online application by April 17, 2009. The two initial fellowships will be awarded at the IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention, which will take place in Cape Town, South Africa, on July 19 to 22, 2009.

NIDA Expands HHH Recruitment Efforts

NIDA Humphrey, INVEST, and INVEST-CTN fellows attended an orientation program with NIDA International Program Director Dr. Steven Gust (back row, far left), Ms. Dale Weiss (second row, far right), and Virginia Commonwealth University Humphrey Fellowship Coordinator Dr. J. Randy Koch (back row, center) in January 2009.

NIDA is expanding its efforts to attract more qualified applicants for the NIDA Hubert H. Humphrey Drug Abuse Research Fellowships, a component of the U.S. Department of State Hubert H. Humphrey (HHH) Fellowship Program. Humphrey programs in Substance Abuse Research, Education, Treatment, and Prevention as well as Drug Abuse and Public Health, including HIV/AIDS, are priorities for both NIDA and the State Department. Since 1990, NIDA and the State Department have supported 246 midcareer professionals from 104 low- and middle-income countries through HHH Fellowships. Now NIDA is taking more proactive steps to ensure that adequate numbers of candidates are available to fill capacity at host universities. NIDA's International Program is volunteering to work via e-mail with potential applicants to help them complete competitive applications. NIDA also is sending HHH Fellowship materials to all U.S. embassies and Fulbright Commissions around the world, international organizations, and current and former HHH Fellows, asking them to share the information with their colleagues and to identify and encourage potential applicants who might be interested to contact NIDA. For more information on eligible countries and regions, visit the NIDA HHH Fellowship Program site at the NIDA International Program Web site.

ISAJE Offers Popular Workshops at the 2009 Forum

Forum Registration Deadline: April 20

The 2009 NIDA International Forum in Reno, Nevada. Based on a popular series presented at previous Forums, the two concurrent breakout sessions will focus on practical and ethical issues in publishing addiction science. The session on practical issues will be chaired by Robert L. Balster, editor of Drug and Alcohol Dependence, and is designed to help published and unpublished researchers choose an appropriate journal, avoid common pitfalls between submission and acceptance, and understand what editors want most from prospective authors. Thomas F. Babor, associate editor of Addiction, will chair the session on ethical issues, which will address issues such as good citation practices, how to deal with authorship credits, and conflict of interest related to funding sources. Forum participants can attend one workshop in person and take the other workshop online at a later time. They also will receive a copy of the newly revised book, Publishing Addiction Science (second edition, Babor et al., 2008).

International Program Inhalant Working Group Publishes Call for Research in Addiction

Writing in the February 10, 2009, online edition of Addiction, a multidisciplinary group of NIDA-supported researchers discuss the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches to classification of inhalants and suggest areas for future research in the area. The authors conclude that classification of inhalants by form or product types is not useful for scientific purposes. They recommend that subclassification of inhalants should be based on a yet-to-be-determined combination of chemical and pharmacological similarity and shared patterns of abuse, and call for efforts to obtain more detailed information on individual products and chemicals, their patterns of use, and the geographical distribution of their use. The authors–Robert L. Balster, Virginia Commonwealth University; Silvia L. Cruz, Cinestav, Mexico; Matthew O. Howard, University of North Carolina; Colleen A. Dell, University of Saskatchewan, Canada; and Linda B. Cottler, Washington University–are part of the Inhalants Working Group, an ad hoc multinational group of drug abuse researchers formed following the 2005 NIDA International Program meeting, Inhalant Abuse Among Children and Adolescents, whose 55 invited participants from 10 nations recommended that an international workgroup of pharmacologists and epidemiologists be created to classify substances and develop questions for use in screening instruments and surveys. The authors worked with Dr. Charles Sharp, NIDA Division of Basic Neuroscience and Behavioral Research, and International Program staff through the NIDA International Virtual Collaboratory to engage the international drug abuse research community as they drafted the paper. In addition to this paper, the group has planned workshops at the 2007, 2008, and 2009 NIDA International Forums and is working with other organizations to gather international data on inhalant abuse. [Addiction. 2009 Feb 10. (Epub ahead of print). Classification of abused inhalants. Balster RL, Cruz SL, Howard MO, Dell CA, Cottler LB. DOI: 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2008.02494.x

NIDA International Program Presents New Web-Based Fellowship Map

NIDA is making it easier to find talented, NIDA-trained research partners from other countries by offering a new tool on the International Program Web site. The NIDA International Program Fellowship Map fosters collaboration among international researchers by allowing users to identify NIDA Fellowship alumni from a particular country or fellowship program with just a click of a mouse. The mapping tool also links from individual fellows to their journal articles indexed in the National Institutes of Health National Library of Medicine's PubMed database. Former fellows from NIDA's INVEST, INVEST-CTN, Hubert H. Humphrey, and DISCA/USDISCA programs are included on the map. The NIDA International Program also is developing new online tools due to be launched later this year that will allow users to find experts by research topic or to search the abstracts accepted for presentation at the past five NIDA International Forums.

Online Master's Degree in Addiction Studies Introduces Part-Time Study Option, New Full-Time Schedule

The International Programme in Addiction Studies, an online master of science degree jointly offered by the University of Adelaide (Australia), King's College London (United Kingdom), and Virginia Commonwealth University (United States), is announcing a change in its program structure and the addition of a part-time study option. The program year will now be divided into four, 11-week sessions, including summer classes. Under the new timetable, full-time students will complete two courses per session and will complete their degree in 12 months. Part-time students will complete one course per session and will complete their degree in 24 months. Applications for the term beginning August 2009 are due July 15, with earlier submission encouraged. For more information, contact ipas@adelaide.edu.au.

Dr. Rijo John Wins ISAJE/WHO Young Scholars Award

ISAJE announced that Dr. Rijo John, a research scientist from Kerala, India, has received the 2008 ISAJE/WHO Young Scholars Award. The award is given for the best paper published in the previous 3 years by a young scholar from a low- or middle-income country on any topic related to addiction. Dr. John's winning paper, “Crowding-out Effect of Tobacco Expenditure and Its Implications on Household Resource Allocation in India,” was published in Social Science & Medicine. With the award, Dr. John will receive travel support to attend an international scientific meeting of his choice.

New Web Site Enhances Transparency for NIH Research Activities

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently launched a new Web site called RePORT (the Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tool), which gives the public quick and easy access to information on NIH programs. RePORT enhances NIH public accountability by providing a single repository with high-powered search tools for reports, data, and analyses of NIH research activities, including expenditures and results of NIH-supported research. Different filters can be applied to find information specific to a particular NIH Institute or Center (IC), funding mechanism, or research topic. NIH stakeholders can find success rates (the percentage of reviewed Research Project Grant applications that receive funding) by type and activity, as well as awards by specific organization, funding mechanism, or congressional district. Also available on RePORT is detailed funding information using NIH's new Research, Condition, and Disease Categorization (RCDC) system, which groups NIH research projects into 215 major areas. RePORT also provides links to strategic plans and visions for each NIH IC, the NIH Databook, the Biennial Report of the Director, and information previously available at the Office of Extramural Research Award Information and Data Web site.

International Scientists Explore Role of Neuroimmunomodulation in Drug Abuse and HIV/AIDS

NIDA supported the International Symposium on Biotechnological Approaches to Neuroimmunomodulation and Infectious Diseases, held December 11–13, 2008, in Nagar, India. The meeting featured speakers from India, Germany, and the United States, including NIDA grantee Dr. Robert Donahoe, an expert in how abused drugs affect the progression of AIDS. The National Institute on Pharmaceuticals and Educational Research of India sponsored the conference, with support from NIDA, Roche Pharmaceuticals of India, and the University of Utah.

NIDA-Supported Researchers Give Notable Presentation

Two researchers initially supported by the NIDA International Program gave a presentation in Paris at the 2008 International Conference on Drugs and Cultures, which was featured in the French newspaper Le Monde. Dr. Geoffrey P. Hunt of the Scientific Analysis Corporation, San Francisco, California, described findings from research comparing the social context of club drug use by youth in San Francisco, California, and Mongkok, Hong Kong. Dr. Hunt and his colleague, Dr. Karen Joe-Laidler of the Hong Kong University Centre for Criminology, found that the drug of choice at rave parties in Mongkok was the anesthetic ketamine rather than ecstasy, which is preferred at parties in many other international settings. Another difference was that drug-using youth in Mongkok were more likely than those in San Francisco to come from the working class. These and other research findings will increase understanding of the club drug and techno dance culture as well as the influence of local context on behavior in party scenes.

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Funding Opportunities

International Research Collaboration on Drug Addiction

• R01: PA-09-020
• R21: PA-09-021
• R03: PA-09-022

Existing NIDA-Supported Funding Opportunities

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Funding Opportunities and Notices

Upcoming Program Announcement Receipt Dates From Fogarty International Center

Fogarty International Center

• Program Application Deadlines and Review Cycle Dates
• Directory of Grants and Fellowships in the Global Health Sciences

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Research Training and Exchange Updates

HHH Fellowship Orientation

NIDA hosted 16 Humphrey, INVEST, and INVEST/CTN Fellows from 13 nations during an orientation program to introduce fellows to the Institute and its staff. International Program Director Dr. Steven W. Gust and Program Analyst Dale Weiss welcomed the fellows to NIDA headquarters and introduced them to NIDA-supported online collaboration tools. Drs. Krystyna Isaacs and Joseph Perpich demonstrated one of those tools, the NIDA International Virtual Collaboratory (NIVC) and discussed the Humphrey Fellowship Professional Affiliation Directory being created through NIVC. The fellows met individually or in small groups with NIDA project officers, and the INVEST/CTN Fellows presented their research projects to CTN staff and grantees. Fellows toured the Intramural Research Program (IRP) in Baltimore, meeting with the IRP Clinical Director, Captain Carlo Contoreggi, M.D., and the IRP Institutional Review Board Administrator, Ms. Anne E. Gupman, as well as attending a grand rounds presentation on therapeutic workplace interventions for addiction by Dr. Kenneth Silverman, Johns Hopkins University. The fellows toured the chemistry and drug metabolism laboratories with Dr. Marilyn Huestis; the magnetic resonance imaging suite with Dr. Eliot Stein; Archway Clinic with Dr. Kenzie Preston and Ms. Margaret Kroen; and the nicotine addiction and cognition outpatient testing rooms with Dr. Steve Heishman. Fellows also toured the National Library of Medicine and met with Dr. James Herrington at the Fogarty International Center. Ms. Mayaan Lawental Schori, an Israeli Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania, also participated in the orientation.

NIDA Awards Three INVEST/CTN Fellowships

NIDA has awarded NIDA INVEST Clinical Trials Network (INVEST/CTN) Research Fellowships to researchers in the Philippines, Columbia, and Tanzania.

• Leonardo R. Estacio, Jr., is an associate professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at the University of the Philippines, Manila. He obtained his Ph.D. in anthropology/medical anthropology from that university in 2003 and an M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in 1999. He was an HHH Fellow at JHU in 1998 to 1999. Dr. Estacio also served as an international consultant for the Vietnam and Bangkok offices of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and as executive director of the Philippine Council of NGOs Against Drug and Substance Abuse. Dr. Estacio will spend his fellowship year with Dr. Dennis M. Donovan of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, working to provide baseline evidence of the prevalence and incidence of amphetamine-type stimulant abuse and its associated risk and protective factors.
• Mario A. Zapata is a professor in epidemiology and mental health and a member of the Mental Health Research Group at CES University in Medellin, Colombia. He obtained his M.D. at Antioquia University in 1989 and a master's degree in epidemiology at CES University in 2004. Dr. Zapata previously served as the director and coordinator of the Drug Prevention Committee of the CARISMA Mental Health and Addiction Center. Dr. Michael Robbins will mentor Dr. Zapata during his fellowship year at the Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, in Miami, Florida. Dr. Zapata will focus on gaining experience with the Brief Strategic Family Therapy model, particularly with adolescent drug users, to facilitate the implementation and evaluation of this approach in Columbia.
• Stephen Nsimba is a professor in the Department of Clinical Pharmacology at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), Tanzania. He obtained his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree at the University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, in 1987, and his Ph.D. at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, in 2003. Dr. Nsimba was an HHH Fellow at John Hopkins University from 2005 to 2006. Dr. Nsimba will be working with Kathleen Brady, M.D., Ph.D. at the Medical University of South Carolina on a CTN protocol that is comparing the relative effectiveness of three HIV testing strategies on increasing acceptance and receipt of test results among adult clients at community-based drug abuse treatment programs. Dr. Nsimba intends to use this experience to implement and study substance abuse and HIV prevention interventions in urban and rural health clinics in four regions of Tanzania.

New INVEST Fellow Will Investigate HIV and HCV in IDUs

Alberto Moriggia is a resident doctor at the San Matteo Foundation at the University of Pavia in Italy. After receiving his degree in medicine and surgery from the University of Milan in 2004, Dr. Moriggia began his residency in infectious and tropical diseases at the University of Pavia. He also served internships in pediatrics at the University of Milan and in tropical medicine and pediatrics at Mnazi Mmoja Hospital in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Dr. Moriggia also was a participant in the ERASMUS Program at the Free University, Berlin, Germany, in 2002–2003. Dr. Moriggia will work with Dr. David L. Thomas of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to investigate the role of HIV in the progression of hepatitis C virus-related liver diseases among injection drug users.

NIDA Selects New Distinguished International Scientists

• NIDA selected Carlos A. Zubaran, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., as a recipient of a Distinguished International Scientist Collaboration Award (DISCA). Dr. Zubaran is an associate professor at the School of Medicine at the University of Western Sydney, Australia, and a consultant psychiatrist at Sydney West Area Health Service. He also has conducted drug abuse research in Brazil. Dr. Zubaran will work with mentor Linda B. Cottler, Ph.D., M.P.H., at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, to compare illicit substance users from culturally distinct countries, such as the United States and Australia, to help identify substance use variables that are significantly influenced by geographical variations. This research will promote further understanding of the environmental factors that may promote or maintain substance use.
• Dwayne Simpson, Ph.D., a new USDISCA recipient, will work with Dr. Ed Day at the University of Birmingham, England, to address structural and systemic issues in sustaining the implementation of TCU-originated drug treatment resources in the United Kingdom. In this new stage of international collaboration, Dr. Simpson will provide strategic planning assistance to help teams of addiction treatment research scientists and clinical practitioners adapt concepts and tools from the TCU Treatment Process Model to treatment systems in the West Midlands and North West regions of the United Kingdom. Dr. Simpson has been a professor at TCU for more than 35 years and is the Director of TCU's Institute of Behavioral Research. He received a MERIT award from NIDA in 1999.

DISCA Fellowship Leads to Publication and a New Technology Transfer Center

Octavio Campollo, Ph.D., of the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, finished his experience as a 2008 DISCA Fellow with two published manuscripts and a collaborative effort to help other addiction professionals in his home country. Working with Fernando Wagner, Sc.D., Morgan State University, Maryland, Dr. Campollo worked on two research projects: risk factors for substance use in high school students in Jalisco, Mexico; and HIV and hepatitis in drug addicts in West Mexico. Two manuscripts prepared during Dr. Campollo's fellowship have been published in the international peer-review journal Anuario Investigación en Adicciones (Volume 9, Number 1, 2008). One article, “Marijuana Effects and Medical Consequences: A Review,” examines and draws conclusions about the most important medical and pathological effects of marijuana. The second article explores the “international ethos of addictions.” After studying NIDA's Addiction Technology Transfer Center model in the continental United States and the Caribbean Basin during his fellowship, Dr. Campollo decided to start an independent technology and transfer center with other faculty members to disseminate information and to train and support addiction professionals in Mexico.

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Meetings

Johns Hopkins Student Research Conference
Addictions, Infectious Disease, and Public Health
April 24, 2009
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Registration deadline: April 17, 2009
Contact: Jonathan Rose, jjrose@jhsph.edu

Calendar of Major Scientific Meetings in Drug Abuse Research

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Press Releases

NIH News & Events

NIDA Newsroom

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Other Items of Interest

NIDA Clinical Trials Network Dissemination Library

NIDA Clinical Trials Network Data Share

NIDA Methadone Research Web Guide

NIDA International Virtual Collaboratory

National Library of Medicine (NLM)

• Resources for International Health Professionals, Researchers, and Librarians in Developing Countries

NIH Library Research Tools

The Research Assistant

Publishing Addiction Research Internationally: www.PARINT.org

NOTE: The following information is being provided for informational purposes only. Reference to any Web site listed below does not constitute endorsement or recommendation by NIDA/NIH/HHS.

SciDev.Net

The International Society of Addiction Medicine offers an International Certification in Addiction Medicine for physicians.

Access to Free or Low-Cost Online Publications for Researchers

• International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP)
• HINARI – Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative

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Reading Corner

Look here for research articles or other publications that may be of interest to the international drug abuse research community.

Get Automated My NCBI

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