The Indiana Alcohol Research Center has received its eighth consecutive five-year grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
The $8.65 million grant renewal will fund basic and clinical research, with researchers working to understand inherited and acquired behavioral and neurobiological vulnerabilities of people with alcohol use disorder.
Read more: AEDs could save lives – but stocking them in schools isn’t easy
IU School of Medicine Professor Christopher Lapish is the scientific director of the center and has worked there for 13 years.
“One of the lines of work that's come out of the center is really clearly showing the heritable basis of the disease,” Lapish said. “And then we've kind of transitioned now in the more recent years to try to determine what are the circuits in the brain that are impacted by those genes being passed down from generation to generation that put those individuals at risk?”
The center comprises a multi-disciplinary team of researchers focused on extreme drinking behaviors that are increasingly prevalent among college-age and young adults.
Read more: Measures to spotlight health risks from PFAS in firefighter gear close to becoming Indiana law
“We'll go over 40 years of continuous funding [this year], which is just unheard of. I don't know that I've ever seen that,” Lapish continued. “And so I'm very proud to be a part of this group [and] to been trusted to continue this line of work.”
The Center was established in 1987 and studies behavioral and neurobiological risks for alcohol use disorder.
