INVEST

Hongqiang Sun, M.D., Ph.D., China, has been selected to receive a 2010–2011 NIDA International Visiting Scientists and Technical Exchange Program (INVEST) Drug Abuse Research Fellowship. He will be working with mentor Thomas R. Kosten, M.D., at the Baylor College of Medicine and DeBakey Veterans Administration Medical Center in Houston, Texas, to investigate the effectiveness of pharmaceutical interventions for smoking cessation.

Fellowships for Senior Researchers

• Distinguished International Scientist Collaboration Award (DISCA)
  Supports professional exchange visits for drug abuse researchers from other countries and NIDA-supported scientists, for projects conducted in the United States.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) International Progam INVEST Drug Abuse Research Fellowship combines postdoctoral research training in the United States with professional development activities and grant-writing guidance to form a unique program for drug abuse scientists. Fellows may conduct their research in any aspect of the biomedical or behavioral science of drug abuse and addiction.

INVEST Fellow Dr. Marta Concheiro Guisán, Spain, ended her successful drug abuse research fellowship having developed and validated two new, noninvasive methods to quantify the level of licit and illicit drugs in biological samples from opiate-dependent patients, as well as publishing several scientific articles and presenting her research at scientific meetings. The new methods developed by Dr. Concheiro and her mentor, Dr.