Nebraska Center for Substance Abuse

The Nebraska Center for Substance Abuse Research at UNMC promotes and facilitates research in understanding the consequences and prevention of drug abuse and neurodegenerative diseases.

The mission of the center is to bring the power of science and research to bear on drug abuse and addiction, thereby improving the quality of life of the affected individuals, while reducing the health care costs in the state of Nebraska through innovative collaborative basic and clinical research, premier education programs, and outreach to those suffering from addiction.

Our goals:

• To train and mentor early stage investigators to transition as established investigators in the area of substance abuse;

• To train students in all aspects of substance abuse research;

• To provide pilot funds to support cross-campus collaborations among basic and clinician scientists;

• To foster trans-institutional collaborations; and

• To procure National Institute of Drug Abuse funding.

A Message from our Director

Addiction caused by abused substances such as alcohol, opiates, cocaine and methamphetamine continues to be a serious public health problem affecting the health, social, and economic fabric of all societies in the United States and globally- it has no borders.

Many of the nation’s top health problems including cancer, cardiovascular and infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS & Hepatitis, are directly linked to substance abuse. Addiction also goes hand in hand with mental health. This is of special concern in the aging population who face increased incidences of mental illnesses such as Alzheimer’s/Parkinson’s diseases and depression. In fact almost 50% of individuals with severe mental health disorders have a co-morbidity of substance abuse and almost 37% of alcohol abusers and 53% of drug abusers have at least one serious mental disorder. The underlying molecular mechanisms by which drugs of abuse impair cognitive functioning and manifest addiction is an area of active investigation and needs multidisciplinary approach.

Our center is committed to facilitating trans-disciplinary research in the area of substance abuse and its consequences on the biological functioning within the Central nervous system, with the ultimate goal of developing therapeutic strategies aimed at preventing and treating drug addiction and the associated co-morbidities.

Our center comprises faculty both internationally and across the UNMC campuses with interests in substance abuse and neuroscience research, outreach and education, including faculty from the UNMC colleges of medicine and public health, UNL, Veterans Affairs and Creighton University.

Our center is become a harmonizing force for translational research in addiction and mental health based on a strategy of developing and nurturing opportunities for interdisciplinary investigations and training new investigators in translational science. We foster, engage and facilitate collaborations among basic and clinical scientists from various disciplines to advance bidirectional bench to bedside research with the ultimate unified goal of improving the lives of those afflicted with addiction.

As part of our educational mission, our center is dedicated to mentoring and training the next generation of scientists in substance abuse research. The center will invite national and international experts on substance abuse research to the monthly seminar series and the annual colloquium to disseminate the latest emerging trends in the field. Developing educational programs geared at uprooting substance abuse problems from society by inspiring lifestyle and grassroots change also is a focus of the center. Together we can eliminate addiction.

Shilpa Buch, Ph.D.