How Can Science Help Us Navigate Around the Dangers of Abuse and Addiction?
Monday, July 28, 2008 1:30pm-4:30pm
Speaker: Ruben Baler, Ph.D., NIDA
There is no doubt that information is power. The knowledge generated by
addiction research in the past decade offers profound insights that could be
used to greatly enhance our efforts to reduce the prevalence and effects of
drug abuse and addiction among the Nation's youth.
The topics discussed at this workshop will illuminate:
how the delicate chemical balance in the brain drives behavior
how the prolonged process of brain development impacts adolescent decision
making
how drugs of abuse perturb brain chemistry
how the environment and other factors can modulate the risk of abuse and
addiction
Educational objectives:
Learn the exquisite orchestration that underlies everything we do
Learn the differences between acute and chronic drug effects
How various drugs of abuse can override the normal control mechanisms in the
brain
Learn how we can smartly manipulate the environment in order to minimize the
risk of drug abuse initiation
Speaker Bio:
Ruben Baler, Ph.D. joined the Science Policy Branch in the Office of Science
Policy and Communications in October 2004 as a Health Science Administrator.
He received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular/Cellular Biology from the
University of Miami in 1993. Before arriving at NIDA, he worked at the National
Institute of Mental Health as a Principal Investigator in the Unit on Temporal
Gene Expression conducting basic research on the molecular basis of circadian
gene expression in vertebrates. His publications have focused on gene promoter
architecture and the determination of tissue and temporal specificity afforded
by discrete clusters of DNA regulatory elements. Most recently, he has
published and taught about the neurobiology of addiction.
