The long-term goal of the New Mexico Alcohol Research Center is to increase understanding of mechanisms underlying the effect of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) on brain development and to develop novel diagnostic and therapeutic interventions for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs). The Scientific Core will support these goals by being a shared research resource that provides investigators with services, expertise and training that will support, enhance and integrate human and animal studies. Specifically, the Scientific Core will support the recruitment of human subjects for research components and future pilots via the Neurodiagnostic Clinic (Center for Developmental Disability (CDD)-Department of Pediatrics). This will ensure that clinical projects focused on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders have access to appropriate subject populations. The Scientific Core will also consolidate and standardize prenatal and postnatal alcohol exposure procedures and mouse colony management for preclinical components. In addition to reducing research costs, this will allow investigators to query relationships between their findings and those obtained in other research components and, thus, facilitate integration of the research components. The Scientific Core will provide research support to all Components and Pilot Projects in several ways including providing bio-statistics support for all of the research components, as well as assisting with study design and data analysis to ensure both rigor and reproducibility of results and consistency in approach across projects where appropriate. The Scientific Core will facilitate the use of the Center for Brain Recovery & Repair Pre-Clinical Core for studies proposed in several Center components (e.g., automated behavioral testing, slide scanner, Imaris image analysis software). The Scientific Core will also support development of new research directions by assisting investigators with implementation of novel behavioral and alcohol exposure paradigms (including pilot projects). Besides reducing research costs, the centralized services of the Core will allow investigators to query relationships between their findings and those obtained in other research components and, thus, facilitate integration of the NMARC’s research components.