National Cooperative Drug Discovery Groups for Nicotine Addiction -
a NIDA Synthesis Meeting

Wednesday February 15, 2006
8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Disney Coronado Springs Resort, Orlando, FL

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is pleased to announce this 1-day meeting to be held immediately prior to the opening of the 2006 Annual Meeting of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco.

This NIDA-sponsored meeting will highlight research funded under the National Cooperative Drug Discovery Groups (NCDDG) initiative, which focuses on the need for mechanism-of-action based medications in nicotine addiction, for molecular tools for discovery research, and to facilitate partnerships between academic and pharmaceutical industry groups. NCDDG is fundamentally a ligand discovery/development program that encourages investigators with a multidisciplinary range of appropriate expertise to form research groups to advance a molecule toward medication development over a portion of the translational spectrum.

This meeting will feature presentations from the currently funded NCDDG investigators on research to develop new pharmacotherapies for smoking cessation. Presentations will focus on a range of research, including the design, synthesis, and screening of ligands for the nicotinic cholinergic receptor and other neurochemical systems and ongoing clinical trials efforts. With ample time for discussion, the meeting will provide a forum for broader interaction with others from the nicotine and tobacco scientific community who are interested in translational approaches of this kind. In addition, the audience will learn of future plans at the NIH for the NCDDG initiative, and other related activities.

There is no fee to attend this meeting, however space is limited and preregistration is required. Please register online at http://conferences.masimax.com/srnt05/registration.cfm.

Detailed program information will be forthcoming in the near future through this listserv and will be accessible at the above-mentioned link.