Postdoctoral Clinical Research Fellowship in Traumatic Stress and Addictions
This is a two-year endowed post-doctoral clinical research fellowship available to psychologists, and other social scientists interested in developing their professional trajectory towards translational research on interventions and treatments for traumatic stress and addictions. Trainees are expected to conduct research in areas that could range from:
- applying human experimental medicine approaches to develop or modify behavioral interventions;
- identifying biomarkers predicting individual differences leading to treatment matching;
- conducting systematic reviews, meta-analyses or secondary, integrative data analyses of clinical trials seeking to identify mechanisms or moderators of change;
- developing or modifying interventions or combination behavioral therapies to treatment traumatic stress and addictions;
- testing technology or mobile health applications of evidence based treatments;
- studying implementation and dissemination of evidence based treatments in the community.
The training program is designed to impart the skills necessary for submitting competitive career development (LRP and K) awards. The emphasis on translational clinical research will require competitive applicants to demonstrate an interest in mentorship from an interdisciplinary team of scientists who will help build knowledge in a number of relevant domains including (but not limited to) clinical trials, cognitive and affective neuroscience, and implementation science.
Trainees will be mentored in core domains of translational research in addictions and trauma treatment including: (1) experimental medicine and clinical trials methods and design, (2) translational neuroscience relating to stress models in animals and humans (3) biostatistics, (4) research design, management, and ethics, (5) scientific writing and oral presentation, and (6) grant preparation. The training program is led by a group of internationally recognized researchers with strong records in addiction-focused clinical trials including psychological and psychopharmacological interventions, cardiac neuroscience, SCAN-based (social, cognitive and affective) neuroscience, neuroimaging, and prevention research. Faculty include: Brandon Alderman, Ph.D., Marsha Bates, Ph.D., Jennifer Buckman, Ph.D., Denise Hien, Ph.D., ABPP, Matthew Lee, Ph.D., Lesia Ruglass, Ph.D., Shireen Rizvi, Ph.D, ABPP. Candidates can elect to work in any of the numerous human neuroscience, epidemiology, or clinical treatment laboratories affiliated with the program.
Trainees who are interested will have opportunities to receive supervised clinical hours at the Dialectical Behavior Therapies Clinic at Rutgers University (DBT-RU). Trainees must apply for a limited permit from the State of New Jersey.
The Center of Alcohol & Substance Use Studies (CAS), located on the Busch Campus of Rutgers University, is a multidisciplinary research and training institute, which performs clinical and biomedical research on alcohol and substance use disorders. CAS serves as a home to clinical and biomedical researchers and clinical practitioners across Rutgers University schools and programs, as well as an illustrious group of affiliated scientists outside of the university. The Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) is home to CAS, with strong ties to the School of Public Health, University Behavioral Health Services, and the Brain Health Institute.
GSAPP’s commitment to diversity, social justice and helping the underserved contributes to a supportive and mission-focused training. We place a high degree of emphasis on fostering and encouraging a diverse community of faculty and students and on supporting research/practice that benefits diverse and under-served communities; applicants who can contribute in this valued direction are particularly encouraged to apply. More information on our school and centers can be found at: http://gsappweb.rutgers.edu.
Interested parties should contact Center Director, Denise Hien, Ph.D., ABPP, for more information or see APPIC posting https://www.appic.org/Postdocs/Universal-Psychology-Postdoctoral-Directory-UPPD/Detail?id=2780
Postdoctoral Research Associate and Training Fellow in Alcohol Use Disorder Across the Lifespan
Applicants are sought for an NIAAA-funded research project involving secondary data analysis and new data collection investigating mechanisms of problem-drinking reduction (including recovery from Alcohol Use Disorder) across different periods of the adult lifespan (young adulthood, midlife, and older adulthood). This will be a two-to-three-year position in which the successful candidate will (1) help coauthor research papers currently at various stages of preparation on mechanisms of problem-drinking reduction in young adulthood and midlife and (2) assist with planning and oversight of survey-based data collection emphasizing possible links between health issues (including cognitive decline) and problem drinking in a sample of midlife and older adults. All of this research centers around characterizing mechanisms of problem-drinking reductions toward evaluating multiple theoretical models of how reductions occur, understanding developmental variability across the adult lifespan in key mechanisms, and thereby guiding lifespan-developmentally-informed interventions.
This position offers many significant training opportunities. Beyond experience gained assisting in the above NIAAA-funded research, the successful candidate will also participate in training activities alongside postdoctoral trainees supported by the Center of Alcohol & Substance Use Studies postdoctoral fellowship program in translational addictions research. The fellowship is led by an interdisciplinary team of addiction scientists affiliated with the Center. Training is designed to build knowledge in a number of core domains of addictions research including (1) implementation science, experimental medicine, and clinical trials, (2) psychopathology in the context of lifespan development, (3) cognitive and affective neuroscience models in animals and humans (4) biostatistics, (5) research design, management, and ethics, (6) scientific writing and oral presentation, and (7) grant preparation.
Altogether, the experience and training offered by this position will impart skills necessary for submitting competitive career development (e.g., LRP and K) awards.
For interested applicants, there is also potential for this position to facilitate broader career-development training opportunities through the INSPIRE(IRACDA New Jersey/New York for Science Partnerships in Research & Education) Postdoctoral Program at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS).
Post-Doctoral fMRI and Neurocardiac Signaling in Addiction Research Fellowship
This is a 3 year endowed Post-doctoral Fellowship, with the potential to transition to a research faculty position after Year 1 or 2. The postdoctoral position will begin with an immersive fMRI training period with our multi-institution neuroimaging team. The successful candidate then will join the Cardiac Neuroscience Laboratory at the Rutgers University Center of Alcohol & Substance Use Studies (Piscataway, NJ) to work with a NIH-supported transdisciplinary research team led by Marsha Bates and Jennifer Buckman.
The Cardiac Neuroscience Laboratory studies holistic brain-body interactions as they relate to alcohol and drug use. Our research spans neurocardiac signaling, BOLD reactivity, brain connectivity, behavioral flexibility, and clinical research. The position offers opportunities to participate in collaborative neuroimaging with Dr. Bharat Biswal, New Jersey Institute of Technology and Dr. David Salat, at Harvard Medical School/MGH, and be trained by a team of addiction experts, physiologists, psychologists, and computational modelers. CAS has strong ties to other Rutgers units such as the Brain Health Institute, as well as multiple community based treatment programs and clinical intervention services. Our proximity to New York, Princeton and Philadelphia neuroscience communities, offers outstanding collaborative opportunities to support training and skills needed to grow an independent research program.
Interested parties should contact Marsha Bates, Ph.D. for more information.
Rutgers University Molecular Neuroscience of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Training (MNADRT) Program – APPLICATIONS STILL OPEN!
The Molecular Neuroscience of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Training (MNADRT) Program will emphasize a multidisciplinary approach, including molecular and cellular techniques, electrophysiology, optogenetics, designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADD), stem cell technology, neuroimaging, neuroimmunology, neurobehavioral pharmacology, and genetics to increase the understanding of the genetic and environmental influences on the nervous system controlling stress dysregulation and pathogenesis in alcoholism and drug abuse. Our training program is very unique as it addresses fundamental brain functions relevant to both drugs (nicotine, cocaine, and opioids) and alcohol abuse and addiction, such as reward, motivation, stress reactivity, among others.
The trainees will benefit from the unique strengths of alcohol and drug abuse research at Rutgers University, which include the Endocrine Research Program, Brain Health Institute, Center of Alcohol Studies, and the research cores, including the genome editing core facility, the bioimaging core facility, genomic informatics, and biostatics services. The vast resources of Rutgers provide state-of-the-art space, laboratory facilities, and equipment that support exceptional postdoctoral training.
In addition to research skills, emphasis is placed on career development with a focus on skills needed to become a productive independent academic scientist, including training in the responsible conduct of research, competitive grant writing, classroom teaching, scientific communication, and laboratory management. Overall, the training plan is designed to provide the trainee with the skills necessary to conduct rigorous and cutting-edge research on the focus area and to carry this knowledge forward into their independent careers.
Details and Requirements
Funded by a T32 grant from NIH, the MNADRT program aims to support 4 postdoctoral lines each year for a period of 5 years. We anticipate to train a total of 10 postdoctoral candidates in the MNADRT program during the 5-year funding period. Trainees will be selected from Ph.D. and M.D. applicants. Once selected by the selection committee (consisted of internal and external advisory board members), a fellow will be assigned to a training faculty laboratory with a 2-year period of funding from the T32 grant. During this period, the fellow will acquire literature knowledge in their subject area, laboratory techniques, ethics, and research training. The fellow will also be tutored by the faculty mentor(s) and other university resources to write and submit an F32 grant application for obtaining funding for 1 or 2 additional years of postdoctoral training. The total number of fellows during the 5-year period (n~ 8-10) is based on the number of current core training faculty (n=10), existing facilities and resources, and research funding available to support postdoctoral research.
For more information, please visit the program website at https://mnadrt.rutgers.edu and/or contact Dr. Dipak Sarkar at Dipak.sarkar@rutgers.edu.