Dr. Victor Hesselbrock, UConn School of Medicine, Presents Research on Genetics of Alcoholism

June 17, 2009

AUSTIN, Texas - The School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin will host a Distinguished Scholar Lecture Wednesday, July 29, from 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. in the school's UTOPIA Theatre.

Dr. Victor Hesselbrock

Dr. Victor Hesselbrock of the Department of Psychiatry, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, will present "The Vulnerability for Alcoholism Bad genes? Bad environment? Bad luck?". Hesselbrock has developed a program of research focused on the identification of psychological and biological factors that contribute to the susceptibility for developing alcohol problems, including dependence.

He is the co-principal investigator for the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) designed to identify genes that contribute to the vulnerability for developing alcohol-related problems. COGA is an extended family study involving more than 1,800 families containing more than 15,000 individuals ages 6 to 103. Data were collected in six U.S. cities.

Hesselbrock will review the evidence for a genetic basis of alcoholism and discuss information collected as part of COGA to identify specific genes associated with alcoholism risk, gene-environment interactions, and how genetic effects may vary with age.

Hesselbrock holds the Physicians' Health Services endowed chair in Addiction Studies at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and is Principal Investigator and Scientific Director of the Psychiatry Department's Alcohol Research Center funded by the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA). He also is chairperson of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Medical School's General Clinical Research Center. He serves as an associate editor for Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and is an assistant editor for Addiction.

He has also served on, and chaired, several National Institutes of Health (NIH) study sections and is currently a member of the National Advisory Council of the NIAAA and the NIH Council of Councils. He is a past president of the Research Society on Alcoholism.

For more information, contact:
Dr. Diana DiNitto, Cullen Trust Centennial Professor in Alcohol Studies and Education and University Distinguished Teaching Professor,
School of Social Work
512-471-9227
ddinitto@mail.utexas.edu