Five-Year Grant Received For Continuation of Alcohol Research at IU School of Medicine
INDIANAPOLIS -- An $8.5 million grant made in December to the Indiana University School of Medicine ensures that research into the genetic determinants of alcohol use and alcoholism remains at the forefront of medical science at IU.
The five-year award is from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), a research institute within the National Institutes of Health. It continues the work of researchers in the Indiana Alcohol Research Center, initiated in1987 by Ting-Kai Li, M.D., associate dean of research and distinguished professor of medicine and of biochemistry and molecular biology at the IU School of Medicine.
For the past 10 years, research in alcoholism and alcohol-related illnesses and behavior has been pioneered by IU investigators who have examined the association of alcohol and aldehyde dehyrogenase polymorphism to alcoholism and its complications, as well as the heritability, sensitivity and repeatability of a variety of response to ethanol in humans. They are studying subjective sensations and brain activity in subjects who do and don't have family histories of alcoholism. Twin and siblings will continue to participate in studies to determine the genetic basis for alcohol-related personality and temperament traits.
IARC Director T.K. Li and Lawrence Lumeng, M.D., professor of medicine and of biochemistry and molecular biology, have developed rodent models that have either a preference or nonpreference for alcohol. IARC Scientific Co-directors David W. Crabb, M.D., professor of medicine and of biochemistry and molecular biology, and Richard J. Rose, Ph.D., professor of psychology and adjunct professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, together with Lucinda Carr, Ph.D., professor of medicine and of pharmacology and toxicology, and Howard Edenberg, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, have focused their work on identifying genes underlying alcohol-seeking behaviors, alcohol abuse and alcoholism in both human and rodent models.
The IARC at the IU School of Medicine was established in 1987 with a $5 million grant from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
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