Recruitment for ABCD has started and will continue over a two-year period through partnerships with public and private schools near research sites across the country. The NIH has identified a specific list of schools for participant enrollment\u00a0in South Florida to include hundreds of youth from diverse ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds in Miami-Dade County and surrounding areas. Leading the recruitment efforts for FIU is psychologist Raul Gonzalez.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving a site in South Florida will ensure that the voices of our community are included in the study,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cWe want to ensure our unique and diverse community is well represented in the larger sample.\u201d<\/p>\n
State-of-the-art facilities and resources at FIU\u2019s Center for Children and Families as well as the Center for Imaging Science serve as the ABCD study sites\u00a0for MRI and behavioral visits. Last month, Siemens \u2014 a leading supplier of medical diagnostics equipment \u2014 delivered a 13-ton MRI machine<\/a> which brings the latest imaging technology to FIU. It is the first magnet\u00a0of its kind in Florida.<\/p>\n Physicist Angie Laird is spearheading the neuroimaging component of the study.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are very excited about FIU\u2019s new 3 Tesla Siemens Prisma MRI, which will allow us to broaden our research capabilities in neuroscience imaging,\u201d Laird said.\u00a0\u201cOur Prisma will play a critical role in the ABCD Study, by providing the means to collect datasets that will illuminate how children\u2019s brains develop over the course of adolescence.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"27247185825_40ae9bc0a7_k-400x262\"](\"https:\/\/fiualumni-eastus.azurewebsites.net\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/27247185825_40ae9bc0a7_k-400x262.jpg\")
Gonzalez is associate professor of psychology, psychiatry and immunology, and a faculty member at the FIU Center for Children and Families<\/a>. He is leading the 14-member research team from FIU\u2019s College of Arts, Sciences & Education<\/a>\u00a0and Robert Stempel College of Public Health &\u00a0Social Work<\/a>. The project includes child mental health and social work experts, as well as psychologists and a physicist, who have extensive track records in drug abuse research and cognitive neuroscience.<\/p>\n