Program Structure and Grant Protocol
Scientific Advisory Board (SAB)
The SAB is led by Kurt Rasmussen, Ph.D. along with experts in the field of substance use disorder. Together, they oversee and manage the protocol for annual grant submission and review. Grants are submitted in abbreviated standard NIH format.
The CAN Collaborative Dream Team
Our current team of brilliant doctors represent Mount Sinai, Harvard, Yale, UCLA, Scripps, University of Washington, UC Davis, Temple University and Johns Hopkins.
Over the last two years CAN has funded 7 Innovation Awards and 2 Young Investigator Awards, each with a $75,000 grant. The directive is to support translatable basic science studies. CAN will not fund a grant unless the proposal is deemed top tier science research by our Scientific Advisory Board. Grant recipients and the center’s that are part of the program share scientific accomplishments through virtual meetings and semi-annual CAN symposiums.
Meet the Scientific Advisory Board
Bill Carlezon, Ph.D.
Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport Chair in Psychiatry
Chief, Basic Neuroscience Division
Director, SPARED Center @ McLean
McLean Hospital
Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
Harvard Medical School
https://www.mcleanhospital.org/profile/bill-carlezon
Social Media: https://twitter.com/AtSpared
William (Bill) Carlezon, PhD, is a Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School. His lab is based at McLean Hospital, where he holds the Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport Chair in Psychiatry and serves as Chief of the Basic Neuroscience Division as well as Director of an NIMH Silvio O. Conte Center focusing on interactions between traumatic stress and sleep. Dr. Carlezon is primarily interested in the biological basis and treatment of neuropsychiatric illness, specifically nature/nurture issues as they relate to the brain and the basic processes by which the brain develops and is modified in response to experience. His lab is currently studying how the environment affects behavior and the biology of the brain, and developing and implementing translationally-relevant (cross-species) endpoints (including sleep) for analysis. "Environment" can mean many things, including exposure to drugs of abuse, stress, trauma, toxins, or illness. This work is relevant to many types of neuropsychiatric disorders, including addiction, depression, anxiety, PTSD, and autism. He has received numerous awards for his research, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from President George W. Bush, the Jacob P. Waletzky Award for Innovative Research in Drug Addiction and Alcoholism from the Society for Neuroscience (SfN), and the Daniel Efron Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP). He is the Principal Editor of Neuropsychopharmacology (NPP), and a chartered member of NIDA's Board of Scientific Councilors.
Kurt Rasmussen, Ph.D.
Delix Therapeutics, Chief Scientific Officer
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurt-rasmussen-phd/
Kurt Rasmussen, Ph.D., is the Chief Scientific Officer at Delix Therapeutics, a new company focused on developing neuroplasticity-promoting therapeutics for multiple indications, including substance use disorders. Previous to Delix, he was the Director of the Division of Therapeutics and Medical Consequences at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), leading their efforts to promote the development of safe and effective pharmacotherapies, behavioral therapies, and devices to treat substance use disorders. Previous to NIDA, he worked as a senior research scientist in the Neuroscience Division of Eli Lilly & Co., leading efforts to discover novel treatments for psychiatric disorders such as depression and schizophrenia. Dr. Rasmussen’s career spans over 30 years of highly innovative scientific research in neuroscience pharmaceutical discovery, from hypothesis generation to clinical candidate evaluation. He received his B.A. with honors and distinction from Cornell University, his Ph.D. in neuroscience and psychology from Princeton University, and was a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine.