Post-Doctoral Scientist

VCU Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies


At VCU, we are UNCOMMON and UNLIKE any other university. A premier, urban, public research university nationally recognized as one of the best employers for diversity, VCU is a great place to work. It’s a place of opportunity where your success is supported and your career can thrive. VCU offers employees a generous leave package, career paths for advancement, competitive pay, and an opportunity to do mission-driven work.

VCU's Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation and the Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies (IDAS) invites all interested candidates to apply for our exciting Post-Doctoral Scientist position! IDAS advances multidisciplinary research and training on the neuroscience of addictions and related neurobehavioral disorders. VCU is UNLIKE the rest. Our impact is measured one student and patient at a time.VCU’s unequaled combination of excellence, diversity, research and creativity makes success possible for every one of our 300,000+ “RAMily” members. And that makes us one of the most innovative universities in the country. A premier, urban, public research university nationally recognized as one of the best employers for diversity, VCU is a great place to work. It's a place of opportunity, where your success is supported and your career can thrive.

All full-time staff are eligible for our generous benefits package that includes choices for health, vision, and dental coverage, life-insurance, short and long-term disability coverage, retirement planning, tax-deferred annuity and cash match programs, flexible spending accounts, tuition benefits, significant paid-time off,12 paid holidays, and more. Explore our benefits further here: https://hr.vcu.edu/current-employees/benefits/

Position Primary Purpose and General Duties:

This is an open post-doctoral scientist position for an enthusiastic and highly motivated individual with the VCU Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies. The VCU Institute for Alcohol and Alcohol Studies conducts research across the translational science spectrum related to substance use disorders (SUD), from population-level epidemiologic studies to mechanistic neuroimaging studies. Addiction is a chronic, treatable medical condition with bio-psycho-social complexity, and the science that informs interventions targeting addiction warrants a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach. Many IDAS studies are focused on informing the development and implementation of innovative, better treatment options for individuals seeking SUD recovery.

Working primarily with Caitlin E. Martin, MD, the post-doctoral scientist will work on IDAS research-related activities that focus on elucidating the roles biological factors, such as biological sex, neurofunctional and psychosocial contexts, such as social determinants of health, play in the recovery of people with opioid and other substance use disorders. Projects are largely focused on employing translational science strategies to identify evidence-based avenues to improve the quality of substance use disorder treatments, such as for opioid use disorder (OUD) medication treatments with buprenorphine. Most studies are NIH funded and include a broad range of methodological approaches, including randomized clinical trials, cohort studies, analyses of nationally representative datasets, qualitative and community-engaged studies.

The current research focus for this open position is on the treatment of comorbid insomnia in buprenorphine-maintained patients with OUD as a means of improving OUD treatment outcomes. Current studies are investigating both behavioral and pharmacological interventions for the treatment of insomnia in this patient population, such as a NIDA funded R01 clinical trial investigating a dual orexin receptor antagonist on neurofunctional underlying mechanisms of OUD among a clinical sample of outpatient treatment participants stabilized on buprenorphine.

The post-doctoral scientist will work on all aspects of our translational science projects with our multi- disciplinary teams, including (but not limited to) assisting with study design, developing and adhering to quality assurance standardized operating procedures, leading data management and analysis procedures, written and oral dissemination of research findings, assisting with regulatory aspects of human subjects research, organizing and leading team communications and study meetings mentoring and teaching student trainees.