NIDA has awarded INVEST postdoctoral fellowships to five drug abuse researchers who will work with NIDA-supported researchers at U.S. institutions. The three INVEST Drug Abuse Research fellows are:
- Yanhui Liao, M.D., a researcher and teacher at the Institute of Mental Health, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, China. Dr. Liao will compare the effects of reduced-nicotine cigarettes in dependent and non-dependent young daily smokers using task-based and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Her mentor is Edythe D. London, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles.
- Bulat Idrisov, M.D., M.S., a clinician and teacher at Bashkir State Medical University, Russia, and 2013 World Health Organization/NIDA/College on Problems of Drug Dependence International Traveling Fellow. Dr. Idrisov will study the relationship between food insecurity and HIV disease progression, HIV risk behaviors, and access to antiretroviral therapy among people who are living with HIV and inject drugs. His mentor is Jeffrey Samet, M.D., M.A., M.P.H., Boston University.
- Roy Otten, Ph.D., a senior research associate at The Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction (Trimbos). Dr. Otten will spend his fellowship working with Thomas J. Dishion, Ph.D., Arizona State University. He plans to investigate the role of peers and genetic differences in a developmental substance use process model that demonstrated a link between effortful control and onset of substance use. He also will test whether the model is relevant for progressive stages of substance use.
The INVEST/Clinical Trials Network Fellow is Lysa Remy, Ph.D., a psychologist and postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Drug and Alcohol Research, Hospital de Clinicas of Porto Alegre, Brazil. Her fellowship mentor is George E. Woody, M.D., Treatment Research Institute and the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Remy will study outcome measures and treatment models for individuals who are dependent on new psychoactive substances.
The U.S.–Mexico Drug Abuse Prevention Research Fellow is Annick Bórquez, Ph.D., a research associate in HIV modeling at Imperial College London, United Kingdom. She will conduct a mathematical modeling study to investigate the impact of changes in Mexican drug policies on the HIV epidemic among people who inject drugs in Tijuana. A Mexican citizen, Dr. Bórquez will join that country’s Centro Nacional para la prevencion y el Control del VIH/SIDA (CENSIDA) upon completion of her NIDA fellowship. Her fellowship mentor is Natasha K. Martin, D.Phil., University of California, San Diego.