Posts Tagged 'alcoholism'

Dr. Vladimirov Receives $400K Alcohol Dependence Grant

Vladimir Vladimirov, M.D., Ph.D., was awarded a two-year grant from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in the amount of $419,375 to study the genome-wide expression patterns of genes and miRNA in the nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex from subjects with alcohol dependence (AD) and healthy controls. The award has two main goals: i) identify AD-relevant gene and miRNA networks and ii) detect genetic polymorphisms found to be associated with AD ...

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Student researches ‘subtle biological differences’ of addiction

Binge drinking is a growing problem in the United States, but are all problem drinkers the same? That is a question Virginia Commonwealth University student Megan Cooke hopes to answer.

Cooke has been interested in alcohol dependence and alcohol use behavior since receiving a postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award to work at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. She quickly realized the importance of genetic influences in the development of addiction — “Ignoring [the genetics] would be ignoring a ...

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Genetics of addiction: Twin studies

Twin studies offer a critical method to studying questions of nature and nurture in addiction research. Identical twins arise from the same fertilized egg, so they share 100 percent of their genes. If a trait is entirely genetic, identical twins strongly resemble one another in that trait. Think of hair color, eye color, height. Fraternal twins, on the other hand—people born from the same mother at the same time, but formed from separate eggs—share just 50 percent of their genes, ...

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