# Career Enhancement Core

> **NIH NIH U54** · YALE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $251,250

## Abstract

Sex interacts with alcohol in a complex manner and sex-related differences exist in: pharmacokinetics and
pharmacodynamics, health-risks and consequences, risk factors for initiation and maintenance of drinking,
impact on neuroadaptation (including immune response and executive function deficits), withdrawal
neurotoxicity and symptoms, stress reactivity, psychiatric co-morbidities, and socio-cultural factors. The Career
Enhancement Core of the Yale-SCORE is responding to the dramatic need for interdisciplinary and
translational scientists, focused on applying sex as a biological variables (SABV) to the study of alcohol use.
Our primary aim is to provide qualified PhD and MD junior faculty with salary support and translational team
mentorship, to enhance their research career development focused on women’s health and alcohol use. Each
year we will support SCORE-Early Investigators (meeting the definition of NIH Early Stage Investigator) for 2
years, with 50% of their time protected to engage in career enhancement activities. With significant committed
institutional support, we anticipate supporting ~15 SCORE-Early Investigators over the course of the grant.
SCORE-Early Investigators will be recruited nationally, with well-developed plans to recruit diverse candidates.
Career enhancement activities include: 1) mentored research, leading to K or R award submissions, 2) access
to pilot funds supporting research focused on SABV and alcohol, and 3) provide a curriculum dedicated to
education regarding SABV and alcohol. Finally, we will provide our SCORE-Early Investigators with
professional development and leadership skills necessary for an academic career. Strengths of this Core
include: a) an intensive focus on team mentoring and career enhancement, b) a cohort of mentors, who are
established investigators with broad expertise in translational, alcohol, and SABV science, c) strong integration
and synergy with the Yale-SCORE, and d) a successful track record of previous trainees. The goal of our
Career Enhancement Core is to mentor investigators to become the next generation of biomedical and
behavioral researchers focused on alcohol and women’s health spanning the T1 to T4 translational spectrum.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9854089
- **Project number:** 1U54AA027989-01
- **Recipient organization:** YALE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** ISMENE L. PETRAKIS
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $251,250
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-03-10 → 2025-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9854089

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9854089, Career Enhancement Core (1U54AA027989-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9854089. Licensed CC0.

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