Gerald L. Andriole
Urologist combats prostatic diseases
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Gerald L. Andriole Urologist combats prostatic diseases |
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Nicotine dependence genes focus of study
Researchers in the School of Medicine will lead a five-year program project grant that will attempt to uncover genetic factors involved in nicotine dependence. Theodore Reich, M.D., the Samuel and Mae S. Ludwig Professor of Psychiatry and professor of genetics, will lead the multicenter study, which is funded by an $8.8 million grant from the National Cancer Institute. Called the "Collaborative Genetic Study of Nicotine Dependence," the study hopes to identify biological mechanisms, genes and environmental factors that determine nicotine consumption and predispose or protect individuals from the onset and persistence of nicotine dependence. "We know that some people never start to smoke, and others cannot seem to stop," Reich said. "We hope that by better understanding the genetic and environmental influences that both influence people to begin using nicotine and keep them using it even when they want to quit, we might help reduce or eliminate the problem of nicotine dependence." The grant will fund research projects at Washington University, the University of Minnesota and the Henry Ford Health Sciences Center in Detroit. The genetic project will be led by Laura Bierut, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry in the medical school. Data from this project will become part of a national genetic repository supported by funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. John P. Rice, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and a director of the repository, will direct the data management core of this three-study program. The third project will study chemicals in the brain and how they change as nicotine is consumed and metabolized there, as well as how those changes in brain chemistry contribute to nicotine consumption and dependence.
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