PROGRAM

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Abstract Submission

Preliminary Program Information

Workshop Objective

Invited Speakers include:

Social Program

Registration Desk

Abstract Submission

Poster viewing sessions will be available during the morning and afternoon breaks throughout the meeting. Attendees are invited to submit an abstract for poster presentations only. Poster abstracts will be distributed with the final program at the meeting. On-line submission is the only method of receipt of abstracts. Please submit your abstract on-line by no later than Monday, 7 August 2006. Abstracts should be a maximum of 250 words.

Confirmation of Receipt of Abstract
Immediately following submission, you will receive an acknowledgment on your computer screen confirming receipt of your abstract, including a submission reference number and confirmation of your personal password. These details should be used if you wish to edit your abstract up to and no later than the submission deadline Monday, 7 August 2006. No changes will be possible after this deadline. Submissions of abstracts will not be accepted after this date.

Preliminary Program Information

Critical questions that will ensure this new knowledge leads to therapeutic developments include:

What does addiction do to neural gene expression and is this permanent?

What are the key biochemical pathways of addiction?

How do neural signalling systems adapt in addiction and withdrawal?

Do substance addiction and compulsive disorders share common aetiologies?

What can neuropsychology and neuroimaging teach us about human addictive behaviour?

How will stem cell research impact on addiction?

How can computer modelling assist in the study of neural networks implicated in addiction?

Do gene chips and tissue arrays belong in addiction research?

What is the best way to translate scientific research into clinical practice?

The goals of the workshop are to:

identify, define, and prioritise key research areas

develop a strategic plan that will focus neurobiological research on addiction

plan collaborative research opportunities that will pave the way for 'bench-to-bed' collaborations and connect neuroscientists in a way that opens up new research and funding opportunities.

Workshop Objective

At the end of the Workshop we will have developed a strategic framework for future research activities within Australia that link with the International Neuroscience research community to improve the treatment and prevention of addiction.

The workshop process is designed to achieve 4 objectives:

1. To draw together the best knowledge from around the world

2. To use this expertise to build a shared vision of the 5 or 6 key questions that if answered will allow us to determine why people become addicts. The process will be undertaken by an elite group (approximately 100 attendees ) who will be involved in a process of vibrant and rigorous dialogue and debate

3. To build a sense of shared vision and enthusiasm amongst these key players to research these issues

4. To have a practical framework that guides the funding and implementation of research.

Invited Speakers include:

Professor Barry Everitt

Dr Hugh Garavan

Dr George Koob

Dr Edythe London

Dr Terry E. Robinson

Social Program

Welcome Reception
All delegates are invited to attend the Welcome Reception. Renew old friendships and make new acquaintances as we welcome you to Hamilton Island and the Addiction Neuroscience Network Australia Workshop. Drinks and cocktail food will be served.

Date: Thursday, 7 September 2006
Time: 18:00 - 19:30
Venue: Main Pool, Hamilton Island
Cost: Included in delegate registration fee
Additional tickets: A$45.00

Gala Dinner
The Gala Dinner is a chance to network with peers in a relaxing and enjoyable environment, whilst sampling some delicious cuisine.

Date: Saturday, 9 September 2006
Time: 19:00 for 19:30
Venue: Bougainvillaea Marquee, Hamilton Island
Cost: Included in delegate registration fee
Additional tickets: A$100.00

Registration Desk

We advise you to collect your registration documents as soon as possible after your arrival. The registration desk will be open during the following times:

Thursday, 7 September: 12:00 - 16:00
Reef View Hotel foyer (adjacent to the hotel's reception desk)

Friday, 8 September: 07:30 - 17:00
Endeavour Room

Saturday, 9 September: 08:00 - 17:00
Endeavour Room

Professor Barry Everitt

Professor of Behavioural Neuroscience, University of Cambridge
Master, Downing College Cambridge, UK

Barry Everitt has been Chair of Behavioural Neuroscience at Cambridge University since 1997. He was elected Master of Downing College, Cambridge in 2003. Professor Everitt is former President of the British Association for Psychopharmacology and of the European Brain and Behaviour Society, and Past President of the European Behavioural Pharmacology Society. He chaired the Long-term Fellowships Committee (Brain Functions) of the Human Frontier Science Program, and has been heavily involved with the development of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies. He has been a member of numerous Editorial Boards, is Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Neuroscience, a position he has held since 1997, is a former Editor-in-Chief of Physiology and Behaviour. His research interests centre on the neural and psychological mechanisms underlying learning, memory motivation and reward. A key focus of this research concerns the neuropsychology of drug addiction, particularly the neural and psychological mechanisms that underlie the development and persistence of addiction to cocaine and heroin.

Dr Hugh Garavan

Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland
Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, USA
Research Scientist V, Nathan Kline Institute, New York, USA

Hugh Garavan joined the faculty of Trinity College at the University of Dublin where he is currently Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Director of Functional Brain Imaging at Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience. He has held the position of Research Scientist V at the Nathan Kline Institute in New York since 2003. Dr Garavan was elected a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin in 2004, and served on the Programme Committees for the International Neuropsychology Society Meeting and the European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting in 2005. His research interests in drug dependence centre on the neuroanatomical basis of human addiction; the sites of action of cocaine in the human brain, and the adaptive changes that occur in the brain of a cocaine addict, as well as the neuroanatomical basis for drug craving.

Dr George Koob

Professor, Department of Neuropharmacology
Director, Alcohol Research Center
The Scripps Research Institute
Adjunct Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, USA

George Koob joined The Scripps Research Institute as Associate Member (with tenure) in the Division of Preclinical Neuroscience and Endocrinology in 1983, and was appointed Professor in the Department of Neuropharmacology in 1990.He has been Adjunct Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego since 1989. He was appointed Director of the NIAAA Alcohol Research Center at The Scripps Research Institute in 1995. Dr Koob has been the United States Editor-in-Chief of the journal Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior since 1994, and has been honored as a Highly Cited Researcher from the Institute for Scientific Information. He won the Daniel Efron Award for excellence in research from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology in 1991, received the 2002 Distinguished Investigator Award from the Research Society on Alcoholism, and received the Mark Keller Award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in 2004. He is a former MERIT awardee from NIAAA and a former member of the National Advisory Councils for NIDA and NIAAA. His current research is focused on exploration of the neurobiological basis for the neuroadaptation associated with drug dependence and stress.

Dr Edythe London

Professor in Rsdn
Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Science
UCLA, USA

Edythe London, Ph.D. is a neuropharmacologist, whose primary research contributions are in the application of brain imaging methods to the study of substance abuse. She has authored 231 original research articles and 68 reviews, mostly on drug action in the brain. She also has edited several books, including one entitled Imaging Drug Action in the Brain. Beyond the area of substance abuse, she has contributed to the development of new approaches and probes for studies of brain function. Such technical advances are applicable to a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders.

Dr Terry E. Robinson

Elliot S. Valenstein Collegiate Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience
Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience Program, University of Michigan, USA

Terry Robinson was appointed to the endowed chair, the Elliot S. Valenstein Collegiate Professorship in Behavioral Neuroscience in 2001. Dr. Robinson has served as Chair of the Biopsychology Program, as Director of the Neuroscience Program and is currently Director of the NIDA Training Program in Neuroscience at Michigan. He is a Charter Fellow of the American Psychological Society, a Fellow of the AAAS, a member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) and the Society for Neuroscience. Dr. Robinson received an NIH Research Career Development Award in 1984. He has served on a number of NIH grant review panels, and is a recipient of the National Institute of Drug Abuse Senior Scientist Award (2000-2005). He presented the Presidential Special Lecture at the 2003 Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting. He has served as an Ad Hoc Editorial Consultant for numerous journals and has been Editor-in-Chief of Behavioural Brain Research since 1996. His research focuses on long-term neuroplastic adaptations produced by repeated exposure to drugs of abuse and stress, and the role these neuroadaptations play in the development of addiction and relapse.