National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

Our laboratory has been actively investigating basic liver biology and liver immunology. By using the knowledge gained through these studies, we are investigating the immunological aspects and molecular pathogenesis of alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) and liver cancer, and exploring novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of these maladies. Recent Cover Stories Monocyte-derived macrophages repair necrotic liver lesions . Journal of...

The mission of the lab is to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in the development and progression of fibrosis, to explore novel therapeutic targets and to develop effective pharmacotherapies for fibrotic disorders of different etiologies, including alcohol use disorders. We are particularly interested in pursuing a multi-target therapeutic approach to improve treatment efficacy by simultaneously engaging multiple pathogenic...

The principal mission of the lab is to develop selective probes and drug-like molecules to enable the study of molecular mechanisms in alcohol associated diseases. The lab aims to use medicinal chemistry and chemical biology approaches to design, synthesize and biologically characterize novel druggable tools for select GPCRs and enzymatic drug targets implicated in pain, inflammatory and fibrotic disorders. Our...

The overarching mission of the lab is to understand the neural basis of cognitive and emotional regulation and how these critical mental processes are mediated by discrete neural circuits and moderated in function by genetic variation and environmental insults, including stress and alcohol.

Human Neurogenetics identifies functional loci that modulate pathways to vulnerability to alcoholism, other addictions, and related psychiatric disorders. To accomplish this it generates clinical datasets and collaborates with multiple laboratories. Its activities encompass human research protocols, large scale SNP detection using massively parallel sequencing, array and capillary electrophoresis based genotyping, in vitro and in vivo functional analyses of receptor variants...

What we do The Section on Clinical Genomics and Experimental Therapeutics (CGET) conducts pre-clinical studies and translational clinical studies with focus on genomics and epigenetics related to the pathophysiology and treatment of alcohol use disorders and addictions. The pre-clinical work focuses on identifying molecular mechanisms involved in addictions, utilizing a wide array of methods including human population genetics, genome wide...

The Laboratory of Cardiovascular Physiology and Tissue Injury (LCPTI) seeks to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms of the complex interplay of oxidative/nitrative stress, inflammation, lipid signaling (for example endocannabinoid signaling) and cell death pathways (e.g. poly(ADP)-ribose polymerase) in tissue injury, and to identify new therapeutic targets using clinically relevant animal models of disease (e.g., ischemia reperfusion injury, cardiomyopathies/heart failure...

LNI uses brain imaging (PET, MRI and simultaneous PET/MRI) to study the neurocircuitry that underlies the rewarding effects of drugs of abuse and of natural reinforcers and their disruption in diseases of addiction and obesity. For this purpose we study how reward circuits modulate executive function (self-control), interoception, and motivation in the normal human brain including an understanding of the...

The research focus of the Laboratory of Molecular Signaling (LMS) is to elucidate mechanisms of omega-3 fatty acids, especially docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) in neuronal development and function with particular reference to the modulation by ethanol. We investigate biochemical mechanisms by which omega-3 fatty acids and ethanol modify neuronal cell membrane structure, and characterize consequential molecular and cellular signaling involved...

The Section on Neuroendocrinology focuses on the endocannabinoid system, which is involved in the regulation of appetite and the metabolism of lipids, and is therefore implicated in obesity, alcoholism and cardiovascular disease. The Section previously provided the first evidence that mice deficient in the cannabinoid receptor CB1 showed reduced food intake following temporary food deprivation. However, the use of rimonabant...

Marijuana-like substances (endocannabinoids) intrinsic in animals and humans act at specific receptors on the blood vessel wall to produce vasodilation, the generalized blood vessel dilation seen in many patients with advanced liver cirrhosis, according to an article by George Kunos, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues in the July 1 issue of Nature Medicine (Volume 7, Number 7; Endocannabinoids acting at vascular...

"The wrong road early," an interview with Dr. Ralph Hingson and HHS HealthBeat. - Listen to the interview with Dr. Ralph Hingson (September 6, 2006) - Read the transcript