Two AU psychology professors earned a five-year grant of $300,000 per year from the National Institutes of Health to continue work on reducing drug addiction.
The grant gives Professors Stan Weiss and David Kearns a 60 percent increase in funds. The professors’ research has enabled them to reduce by 90 percent the number of times a research subject will seek cocaine, according to Weiss.
The research delves into the impact cues or stimuli related to drug use — such as pipes or syringes — will have on an addict’s craving for the drug, according to Kearns.
“The basic point is that stimuli will cause animals to want more drugs ... the focus of the research that [NIH] is funding ... is ameliorating the influence of drug cues ... [and] drug-related stimuli,” Kearns said.
Through their experiments with rats in the AU laboratory, Weiss and Kearns have been able to measure addicts’ drug-seeking behavior when they are in a situation that reminds them of the drug.
“Various environmental conditions can energize the drug-seeking ... by almost tripling it,” Weiss said.
The grant is a five-year renewal that will earn recognition for AU, he said.
“This is an R01 grant from the NIH,” Weiss said. “This means it is an open competition [for the grant] ... We’re in there with all the major labs, major research institutions and universities.”
In the process of applying for the grant renewal, applicants must demonstrate that what they have accomplished in the past is work that should be continued.
“One has to show that this is a productive area of the agency’s funds. What you propose has to build on what you’ve done, but in an innovative way ... There’s probably no one else in the world looking at drug stimulus control the way we are here in this laboratory,” Weiss said.
Katie Marx, a graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences, got involved with the lab and now helps Weiss’ and Kearns’ work by testing the research subjects.
“The grant is kind of unreal,” Marx said. “It’s a huge honor for a lab of our size and manpower ... It’s really been two men, a lab and 30 subjects that they’ve been working on for years. It’s paid off in this incredible way.”
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