With $12.3M federal grant, Brown to expand research on substance misuse and chronic disease

"We have a unique opportunity to not only do the basic science work and come up with the answers to these interdisciplinary biomedical research questions," Monti said, "but we also have behavioral health and public health researchers, as well as health policy scholars, who can help implement change on multiple levels."

The center will fund and support projects led by early-career faculty who are mentored by established faculty members such as the center's deputy director, Dr. Jasjit Ahluwalia, a professor of behavioral and social sciences and medicine, and Jennifer Tidey, a professor of behavioral and social sciences and of psychiatry and human behavior.

"Through innovative interdisciplinary research, the Center for Addiction and Disease Risk Exacerbation will not only contribute to new knowledge, but will continue to serve as the nexus and path to independence for the next generation of scientists," Ahluwalia said.

The grant will fund three initial research projects, each led by an early-stage investigator, with administrative, clinical laboratory and recruitment support from the center.

Cara Murphy, an assistant professor of behavioral and social sciences, will investigate effects of alternative nicotine products on smoking and weight among individuals with obesity who smoke. Lauren Micalizzi, an assistant professor of behavioral and social sciences (research) will examine the effects of parental alcohol use on child behavioral disorders. Alexander Sokolovsky, an assistant professor of behavioral and social sciences, has proposed to leverage novel wearable biosensor technology as well as behavioral, mood and physical assessments to measure the link between cannabis use and depression (this project is awaiting final approval from the NIH).

A supplemental grant will support a collaboration among five researchers to complete a one-year project in the area of metabolic liver diseases (formerly known as fatty liver diseases), as they relate to obesity and at-risk drinking. In addition to Monti, the research team includes Hayley Treloar Padovano and Mollie Monnig, both of whom are behavioral and social sciences scholars, with gastroenterologist Dr. Kittichai Promrat and Stephanie Goldstein, an associate professor (research) of psychiatry and human behavior and research scientist at the Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center of the Miriam Hospital.

The center is supported by an Institutional Development Award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (P20GM130414).