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August 31, 2007|Volume 36, Number 1|Two-Week Issue


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Grant to fund study of stress & self-control

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the Yale School of Medicine $23.4 million to study the interactive effects of stress and self-control on tobacco smoking, excessive drinking and overeating.

Yale was one of nine institutions, from among 100 applicants, to receive the five-year grant from NIH’s Roadmap for Medical Research initiative. The grant is intended to integrate aspects of different disciplines to address health challenges that have been resistant to traditional approaches.

NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni says the idea is to transform the way research is conducted. “These programs are designed to encourage and enable change in academic research culture to make interdisciplinary research easier to conduct for scientists who wish to collaborate in unconventional ways,” he notes.

Yale School of Medicine Dean Dr. Robert Alpern says: “Yale scientists have a long and distinguished record of discovery in fields that relate to stress, self-control and substance abuse, including psychiatry, neurobiology, imaging science, pharmacology and psychology. These resources — and the structure for cross-disciplinary research that will result from the award — will greatly accelerate the pace of discovery and are very likely to change the way we think about and treat addictive behavior.”

Yale’s consortium is headed by Rajita Sinha, professor of psychiatry. She says key factors in Yale’s winning the grant were the medical school’s experience in organizing large scientific programs and centers, and the number of senior level scientists already engaged in the related research. “A key aspect of having these established research programs are the training opportunities that this grant will make available to junior scientists,” Sinha says.

The consortium will be based at the newly established Yale Stress Center and will involve 60 scientists from Yale as well as two collaborating institutions, the University of California at Irvine and Florida State University. There are 10 different research proj­ects that look primarily at stress and self-control mechanisms that perpetuate and maintain the use and overuse of tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy foods.

The goal, Sinha says, is to develop new pharmacological and/or behavioral interventions to prevent and treat the compulsion and loss of control that accompanies tobacco smoking, alcohol abuse, and overeating rich and highly palatable food. “We also want to map out stress and environmental factors and biological and physiological changes that result in individual maladaptive behaviors,” she says.

This is the second major Roadmap for Medical Research grant that the School of Medicine received from NIH. In October 2006, Yale was awarded a $57.3 million Clinical and Translational Science Award aimed at transforming how biomedical researchers move laboratory discoveries into human studies, enabling faster and more efficient development of new therapies.


T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

University is welcoming its most diverse freshman class in history

Yale will bring educational treasures to iTunesU

Appointments Announced

Yale Arab Alumni Association launched this summer

Yalies get taste of Hollywood as ‘Indiana Jones’ extras

SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT NEWS

DeVane Lectures to explore impact of performing arts

Scientists discover that evolution is driven by gene regulation

Exhibit explores fusion of fact and fiction in pirate portrayals

Also on view at the Beinecke Library

Exhibit features landscapes by photographer Jem Southam

Volunteers will again help during ‘Days of Caring’

Show celebrates East Asia collection’s 100th anniversary

Appointments at Center for Bioethics include a new director, David Smith

New residential college deans named

Events explore topics of reconciliation and ‘laws common to all mankind’

Yale Art Museums’ Open House to feature music, tours and more

Yale Library unveils blog and search tool

OISS seeking hosts for its Community Friends program

IN MEMORIAM

Campus Notes


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