Clinical research mentorship opportunities are available to trainees at several career stages. Mentorship is provided by core faculty members of the Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. For more information, contact us at (804) 828-3793.

Medical students

Opportunities include summer and other short-term research experiences for medical students with an interest in the neurobiology of addiction. Experiences could feature training in the ethics of human subjects research, hands-on testing of research volunteers, helping researchers develop new testing methodology and immersion in addiction-relevant biomedical literature. Medical students with existing expertise in statistics may have opportunities for analysis of existing data.

Biomedical graduate students

IDAS faculty have appointments with the VCU Graduate School (including the Biomedical Sciences Doctoral Portal) and can provide primary and committee mentoring for the development and execution of dissertation- and thesis-level psychopharmacology and neurobiology projects that could be conducted in our neurobehavioral and MRI testing facilities.

Psychology graduate students

IDAS faculty can provide mentoring for a practicum in applied research in clinical populations, as well as mentoring for the development and execution of dissertation- and thesis-level behavioral and neuroimaging projects that could be conducted in our neurobehavioral and MRI testing facilities.

Residents

IDAS faculty can provide mentoring for residents with an interest in addiction psychiatry and the neurobiology of addiction. Mentoring would include experience with interview-based research-grade psychiatric characterization of research volunteers, and neurobehavioral testing and data analysis. Longer-duration electives can feature neuroimaging data collection and analysis, and the design and management of small projects.

General Resources

Pursuant to Virginia Generaly Assembly HB2300 (2021), the Virginia Department of Health Professions issued a report in October 2021 on best practices for opioid related emergencies in the emergency department. A working group, which included IDAS Director F. Gerard Moeller, M.D., assembled to create the report, which serves as an implementation resource for hospitals and emergency department providers across the commonwealth. Read: Best Practices for Opioid Related Emergencies report