CAST focuses on rapidly evolving priorities in public and clinical translational research in substance use disorders (“addiction”), mental health, and neuropsychiatric disorders. The COVID-19 pandemic intensified psychiatric complications, further impacting brain health and human productivity. Scientific approaches employed by CAST span across molecular and cellular mechanisms, brain circuitry, neuro-infectious diseases, with a special emphasis in sustained excellence in chemistry, drug discovery and therapeutics, and important community efforts in prevention and improving public health. These key areas are all noted as growth areas for UTMB that are aligned with current national research funding and training grant priorities.  

The Center’s objectives below reflect our 5-year outlook for the inaugural Center for Addiction Sciences and Therapeutics:

To accomplish these objectives, we have developed three Momentum Networks (MNs). These networks advance and integrate profiles of knowledge in translational studies toward personalized treatments. 

MN#1 discovers mechanistic drivers of dysfunctional neural processing that initiate and sustain these disorders (“cell to human”).

MN#2 employs this knowledge to advance towards personalized cognitive and medication therapies.

MN#3 emphasizes translation of SUD sciences into clinical, population and public health strategies, harnessing health analytics to accelerate toward precision medicine and clinical health advances.