Specialty Tracks at #CPDD26

The CPDD Annual Meeting features a range of specialty tracks designed to highlight emerging and impactful areas in addiction science.

What to Expect from all tracks

• Small Group Sessions: Engage directly with leading scientists, advocates, and researchers in intimate, focused discussions designed for meaningful dialogue, co-learning, and mentorship.
• Career-Boosting Connections: Network with established investigators and peers advancing the track topic research, co-production methods, and that can open doors to collaborations, funding, and career advancement.
• Dedicated Poster Presentation Opportunity: Showcase your work in a session highlighting early career investigators and track topic scholars — designed for visibility and connection across the CPDD community. 

LIVED EXPERIENCE TRACK

The CPDD Program Committee is excited to introduce the Lived Experience Track —a new space dedicated to centering the voices, insights, and scientific leadership of people with lived and living experience (PWLE) of substance use and recovery. This track recognizes lived experience as a critical source of data and epistemic grounding that enhances validity, ethics, and impact of addiction science. 

The Lived Experience Track invites the addiction research community to expand our understanding of what counts as evidence — and who contributes to scientific discovery in shaping a more inclusive and translational future for the field. 

The Oregon Model: Peer-Based Research and Interventions for People who Use Drugs

P. Todd Korthuis, Ph.D

Oregon Health & Science University

Centering Lived Experience in Addiction and Psychiatric Neuroscience: Rethinking Risk, Recovery, and Research from within

Maya Schumer, Ph.D

Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital

Stigma, Recovery, and the Reframing of Lived Experience as a Clinical Superpower

Steven Klein, MD, Ph.D

Caron Treatment Center

Lived Experience across Career Stages

Noel Vest, Ph.D

Boston University

NEUROBURST TRACK

The CPDD Program Committee is thrilled to continue Addiction NeuroBurst — a bold new track launched last year and designed to spotlight addiction neuroscience research. Tailored especially for addiction neuroscience researchers, this track offers dynamic opportunities to grow your network, elevate your research, and connect with leaders shaping the future of the field. It specifically embraces neuroscience from human and preclinical domains and aims to encourage collaboration between these two critical research areas.

Don't miss this chance to plug into the future of addiction neuroscience.

PLENARY

Shelly Flagel, Ph.D.

University of Michigan

Recent Advances in Craving Research: From Animal Models to Humans

Hedy Kober, Ph.D

University of California, Berkeley

PET Neuroimaging: New Methods and Imaging Targets

Ansel Hilmer, Ph.D

University of Michigan

Epigenetic Mechanisms and Editing Approaches in Addiction Neurobiology

Elizabeth A. Heller, Ph.D

University of Pennsylvania

Emerging Tools

Michael Michaelides, Ph.D

National Institute of Health

REAL WORLD OF ADDICTION TRACK

Enhancing bi-directional translation across the addiction science pipeline 

The Real World of Addiction Track brings together clinicians, researchers, individuals with lived and living experience, and policymakers to strengthen the connection between addiction science and patient care. Led by Drs. Joao De Aquino and Justin Strickland, the track focuses on identifying the most important research questions and the best methods to answer them across the full pipeline from epidemiology and preclinical models, to human laboratory work, and clinical trials. 

The Presidential Keynote for this track will be delivered by Dr. De Aquino, who will present a clinical case-based lecture on major challenges to treatment success and how translational science can overcome them. The remainder of the program will engage the community in discussions about defining and measuring recovery outcomes, tailoring treatments to individual needs, and improving real-world implementation. A dedicated poster and networking session will foster partnerships that support science designed to work for the people who need it most. 

PRESIDENTIAL KEYNOTE

Eleanor Blair Towers, Ph.D

University of Virginia

Designing Consequential Addiction Science: Translation Under Real-World Boundary Conditions

Joao De Aquino, MD

Yale University

Translational Determination of Alternative Definitions of Treatment Success and Treatment Endpoints

Justin Strickland, Ph.D

University of Maryland School of Medicine

A Panel Discussion on the Successes and Challenges in Defining Alternative Treatment Endpoints across the Translational Continuum

Justin Strickland, Ph.D

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Opioid-Sparing with Cannabinoids in the Real World: Integrating Population Data and Clinical Trials with Mechanistic Understanding

Ziva Cooper, Ph.D

University of California, Los Angeles