U Of M Receives $9.9M Grant To Establish New Center For Brain Science Of Addiction
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The University of Minnesota has been awarded over $9 million to help combat the issue of addiction in the state.
According to the Minnesota Department of Health, more than 450,000 Minnesotans struggle with a substance use disorder. This is why the National Institutes on Drug Abuse (NIDA) awarded the university a $9.9 million federal grant to establish the Center for Neural Circuits in Addiction.
At the center, a team of university researchers will help create tools to establish how the brain changes with addiction. The university says their findings will help develop new treatments and raise awareness of the biological basis of addiction.
"We want to emphasize that addiction is not a failure of moral character or will," said Mark J. Thomas, a professor and director of the Medical Discovery Team on Addiction in the Medical School, who is leading the Center. "It's a serious and chronic brain-based medical condition in need of much better treatments. Addiction and relapse result from changes to neural circuits through repeated exposure to drugs in some people."
Thomas explains how the the center will help researchers better understand how the "circuits that control emotions, motivation and decision-making are altered by addiction." He says this is the key to finding new and more effective therapies.
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