The Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center (Gallo Center) is one of the world's preeminent academic centers for the study of biological basis of alcohol and substance abuse. Gallo center research has a remarkable track record of innovative and important discoveries of molecular, cellular and nuronal mechanisms that underlie alcoholism and substance abuse and their co-mobidities. Gallo Center discoveries of potential molecular targets for the development of therapeutic medications are extended through preclinical and proof-of-concept clinical studies. Gallo Center technologies are further developed through intellectual property licensing and joint development relationships with biotech and pharmaceutical companies.
Selena Bartlett, the Sidney R. Baer Jr. Foundation Investigator at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center of the University of California, San Francisco, thinks that the reliance on cigarettes by most recovering alcoholics has a biological basis and may actually increase the chances of relapse.
Some individuals earn rewards more successfully than others, but it has been unclear what brain changes underlie these differences. Tye et al. report that reward learning performance depends upon increased activity and synaptic strength in the amygdala, a brain area important for emotional learning.
Boosting the level of a specific brain protein quickly cut excessive drinking of alcohol in a new animal study, and also prevented relapse -- the common tendency found in sober alcoholics to easily return to heavy drinking after just one glass.
The Gallo Center recently was awarded a prestigious five-year specialized Center Grant from the National Institure on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). This multi-component project will be directed by Dr. Robert O. Messing, Associate Director of the Gallo Center. This is the largest competitive grant the Center has received in its 28 year history.
Morphine's side effects as a pain killer - its potential to create dependency - has been almost completely eliminated in research with mice by genetically modifying a single trait on the surface of neurons. The study scientists think a drug can be developed to similarly blocked dependency in humans.
