Support career paths that integrate research and teaching.

Foster research relationships within the UAB Department of Surgery, and with other UAB entities, including the Comprehensive Neuroscience Center, the Comprehensive Diabetes Center, the Comprehensive Obesity Center, the Department of Genetics, the Department of Neurobiology, the Department of Nutritional Sciences, the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology, and importantly, with other institutions in the U.S.A. and abroad. Strive to maintain an open and supportive learning environment where basic principles of gastrointestinal physiology and neuroscience are applied to the study ESD.

The CINEMA objectives for trainees in surgery and neuroscience and other UAB disciplines are to:

• Improve the knowledge and skills of UAB scientists at all levels in ESD.
• Foster interdisciplinary research to understand the co-morbid nature of ESD with other inter-systemic pathologies.
• Foster advanced training and sub-specialization of surgeons and neuroscientists in teaching and research in ESD.

By providing outreach programs and consultation services in synchrony and close collaboration with UAB Beacon Addiction Treatment Center, CINEMA strives to increase knowledge and awareness of opioid, alcohol and other drug issues, and decrease the negative consequences associated with high risk drinking and illegal drug use, particularly for individuals undergoing gastric and colorectal surgeries. CINEMA will also initiate other activities to foster the discussion of ESD research on campus. CINEMA will initiate a monthly Data Club meeting. Presentations will be given by students and postdocs, as well as faculty to a mixed audience.

Within the educational goals of CINEMA is the creation of the Surgical Program in Addiction Research and Medical Advancements (S-PARMA). The S-PARMA will foster knowledge and learning opportunities for physician scientists in the Department of Surgery, both for the comorbid nature of gastrointestinal surgeries and hormonal therapies with addiction and mental illness, as well as for the mechanisms underlying the risk of post-surgery treatments for pain.

The primary goals of the research activities of CINEMA are:

• To generate new knowledge on ESD.
• To promote communication & collaboration among CINEMA and other interested researchers.
• Within these broad goals, CINEMA seeks also to communicate research findings to the larger Alabama community.