Shared Core

Director: Howard Becker, Ph.D.

The main objective of the ARC Shared Resource Core is to provide centralized resources and services that support and enhance research efforts in the ARC. The Shared Resource Core contains three components that address the resource and service needs of ARC investigators: these are the Animal Core component (Leader: Marcelo Lopez, Ph.D.), Clinical Intake & Assessment Core component (Leader: Konstantin Voronin, M.D., Ph.D.; Co-Leader: Sarah Book, M.D.), and Biostatistics Core component (Leader: Michaela Hoffman, Ph.D.).

Animal Core component: This Core component provides basic research projects and pilot projects with animals uniformly treated in an established model of alcohol dependence that involves repeated cycles of chronic intermittent ethanol (CIE) exposure. The Animal Core also will conduct studies to validate molecular tools (e.g., viruses for targeting cell-specific chemo/opto-genetic manipulations) for effectiveness prior to their use in research projects.

Clinical Intake & Assessment (CIA) Core component: This Core component centralizes advertisement and recruitment efforts, performs initial screening of potential study participants, coordinates clinical lab tests, and utilizes assessment procedures to match and optimize allocation of subjects for enrollment in ARC clinical research projects/pilots. The core will also provide medical oversight for clinical studies in the Center.

Biostatistics Core component: This Core component provides data management and statistical services to both basic and clinical research projects within the Center. This includes assisting in study design development, performing power analyses at the front end of the projects, construction of appropriate databases, conducting analyses utilizing various contemporary statistical approaches, and assisting in preparation of manuscripts and presentations for dissemination of study results.