Number 39, December 2011

Robert Zucker, Ph.D. Director of the University of Michican Addiction Research Center

Working systematically over the last decade, Robert Zucker, Ph.D., director of the University of Michigan (UM) Addiction Research Center, has been developing a program to build a substance abuse research infrastructure for Central and Eastern Europe.

The idea for the program began for Dr. Zucker when Stanislav Golec, M.D., a Polish psychiatrist working in the UM Department of Psychiatry, contacted him about a potential collaborative project between Polish and U.S. scientists. Noticing the NIDA-funded Fogarty International Clinical, Operational and Health Services Research and Training Award (ICOHRTA) grant, Dr. Golec saw an opportunity to foster research collaborations between Polish and U.S. scientists.

Successfully competing for the ICOHRTA grant in September 2001, Dr. Zucker began a 5-year program in collaboration with the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw to bolster the drug abuse and addiction research capacity in Poland by increasing research skills among biomedical and behavioral scientists in Poland, promoting research exchange, and generating new research on drug abuse and addiction in the region. Beginning in 2006, after being awarded a second ICOHRTA award, the program was extended to include collaborations in Ukraine, Slovakia, and Latvia.

Over the course of the 10 years, the program has had a substantial impact. The funding has supported 11 workshops across the region involving 285 attendees. A dozen long-term research fellows participated in 1-year fellowship programs of methodology training and mentored research in the United States, and upon returning home carried out pilot research projects developed in collaboration with their U.S. mentors. The program also supported shorter visits to the United States by senior researchers and program directors who completed research projects, established new collaborations, and developed relationships with U.S. substance abuse agencies. In addition, a new curriculum on addiction medicine was put into place at the leading medical school in Poland (Medical University of Warsaw), exposing all medical students to substance abuse clinical and basic research content.

UM faculty members now serve as consultants for a component of the Polish Ministry of Health, and one of the former trainees, Marcin Wojnar, M.D., Ph.D., is the permanent advisor to the director of the Polish Ministry of Health. In 2009, the Polish Ministry of Health agreed to support collaborative research projects funded under the NIDA International Research Collaboration on Drug Abuse and Addiction Research Program Announcements, and has forged separate research partnerships with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the Fogarty International Center.

The program also has resulted in several off-shoot initiatives. A formal collaborative research partnership has been established between the Polish government and NIAAA to carry out a joint country research program on fetal alcohol syndrome. The program also served as the stimulus and template for a separately funded NIAAA/Fogarty International Center initiative on the development of research capacity in Poland for alcohol and injury research with emergency medicine and public health departments.

In addition, the formation of the Polish Society for Research on Addictions, formally chartered in 2007, provided a tangible means of communicating research findings and developing new collaborations. With more than 100 members, the Society held its third scientific meeting this September in Warsaw to provide an update of research on alcohol and drug research in Poland. National Institutes of Health staff Margaret M. Murray, Ph.D., NIAAA, and Steven W. Gust, Ph.D., NIDA International Program director, participated. Dr. Gust gave a talk on the state of the science on drug abuse from the global perspective, remarking on drug use statistics and emerging trends, including synthetic drug use in Europe and government policies, prevention interventions, and treatment protocols. He also reviewed recent NIDA-funded research advances and the recent activities within the International Program.

The achievements made by Dr. Zucker and his colleagues are immeasurable. Their work has created a solid foundation that will continue beyond the life of the next grant. Although the funding award Dr. Zucker received, the ICOHRTA, is no longer available (Fogarty International Center has decided to reconfigure the program and consolidate it into another program), he already has a proposal in to obtain funding to begin his second decade of work under Fogarty’s Chronic, Non-Communicable Diseases and Disorders Across the Lifespan: Fogarty International Research Training Award (NCD-LIFESPAN) (D43) program.

The European Union’s (EU) Driving Under the Influence of Drugs, Alcohol and Medicines (DRUID) held its last meeting earlier this fall, marking a 5-year effort to gain insight into the full impact of substance abuse on road safety.

Coordinated by the Federal Highway Research Institute of Germany and begun in 2006, DRUID provided scientific support to European Commission (EU) transport policymakers by suggesting guidelines and measures to combat impaired driving. Financed within the EU Sixth Framework Program for Research and Technological Development, experts from 18 countries representing 37 institutions worked together to gain new insights into the real degree of impairment caused by psychoactive substances such as alcohol, drugs, and certain medicines, and their actual impact on road safety.

NIDA International Program Director Steven W. Gust, Ph.D.,—along with more than 300 international scientists, representatives of European organizations and policymakers, and members of the press—participated in the DRUID conference that was held in downtown Cologne September 27–28, 2011. The conference included a plenary session, press conference, and in-depth scientific sessions where participants learned about the results, achievements, and conclusions of this important initiative.

The Dutch Addiction Program (DAP) Risk Behaviour and Dependency Programme hosted a binational addiction workshop in October in The Hague, The Netherlands.

The workshop was part of the ongoing collaboration between NIDA and the Research and Development Programme on Substance Use and Addiction of the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw). In 1999, both nations agreed to cooperate by exchanging information and materials about drug addiction research, support exchange visits by scientists, and hold joint symposia to promote collaborative research efforts.

This workshop focused on the progress of current binational research projects, new research initiatives, and future collaboration between NIDA and The Netherlands. NIDA’s David Shurtleff, Ph.D., acting deputy director, and Steven W. Gust, Ph.D., International Program director, as well as Sineke ten Horn, DAP, hosted a session on future directions and priorities in drug abuse and addiction. Dr. Shurtleff discussed highlights in translational research at NIDA, while Dr. Gust focused on the future of international research collaborations, with Dr. ten Horn offering the Dutch perspective. Workshop participants also heard from jointly funded research teams as well as project teams funded by DAP’s Risk Behavior and Dependency Programme, on three separate topics: brain chemistry, brain activity, and pharmacology.  

The agenda also included time for a site visit to The Hague where a coffee shop owner explained the country’s tolerance model for certain drugs. Visitors learned how the coffee shop concept works and who the customers are that frequent these shops. The owner also explained the cooperation shops such as this one have with addiction clinics and their relationship with the police. The afternoon included a lecture by a police officer who expounded on the law enforcement perspective of the tolerance model.

Dr. Gust also participated in the European Area Research Network on Illicit Drugs conference the following day. The conference participants discussed some of the policy issues from partnering countries, the research underway, and projects planned for the future to provide for the development of a solid basis for evidence-based policy. Dr. Gust’s talk emphasized the added value of international collaboration in research.

The NIDA International Program provided travel support for three researchers who are currently working with Dutch partners:

• Raymond G. Booth, Ph.D., University of Florida, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, College of Medicine
• Daniel D. Langleben, M.D., University of Pennsylvania, Addiction Treatment Research Center
• Ingo Willuhn, University of Washington, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

NOTE: The deadline for poster abstracts and travel award applications has been extended to January 13, 2012.

Registration is now open for the 2012 NIDA International Forum to be held June 8–11, 2012. This year’s meeting is co-sponsored by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction and builds on their First International Multidisciplinary Forum on New Drugs held earlier this year. The 2012 NIDA International Forum will focus on new and emerging synthetic and natural drugs, such as synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists (e.g., Spice) and stimulants (e.g., cathinones).

Join us for the research symposium, interactive workshops, poster session, and networking activities highlighting NIDA-supported and other international drug abuse research.

The NIDA International Forum is held in conjunction with the 74th Annual Scientific Meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD). The NIDA Forum and the CPDD meeting have their own registration and abstract submission processes; therefore, you must register separately for each meeting.

Ms. Cendrine Danae Robinson attended the Summer Institute on Alcohol, Drugs and Addiction in The Netherlands earlier this year and found that the experience exceeded her expectations.

Ms. Robinson, a doctoral student at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, attended the Summer Institute through a tuition waiver from the NIDA International Program. The Institute “immensely enriched my graduate training,” she wrote in a final report of her experience.

A joint initiative of The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) and the University of Amsterdam Graduate School of Social Sciences, the Summer Institute is a 2-week, intensive multidisciplinary program offering graduate-level and continuing professional development training in addiction, while promoting opportunities for international networking.

Ms. Robinson was part of a group of students from a range of countries who heard from counselors, psychiatrists, pharmacologists, and researchers. The students gained a greater understanding of current drug abuse prevention and treatment research and, given the diverse make-up of the participants, had the opportunity to hear a range of perspectives and about the influence of culture on drug policy.

Ms. Robinson walked away from the Institute “with a global understanding of drug use and policy,” she said of the 2-week training. She plans to cultivate the relationships she began at the Institute as she continues with her research.