Leader in Trandisciplinary Tobacco Research to Deliver IHRP-CCTS Distinguished Lecture

Caryn Lerman of the University of Pennsylvania, a national expert in transdisciplinary and translational tobacco control research, will deliver the Fall 2009 Distinguished Lecture hosted by the Institute for Health Research and Policy in partnership with the UIC Center for Clinical and Translational Science.

Dr. Lerman will discuss “Nicotine Dependence Treatment: From Mouse to Man to Medicine” on Tuesday, December 1, at 2 p.m. in the College of Medicine’s Moss Auditorium, 909 S. Wolcott.

All UIC faculty, researchers, staff and students are welcome to attend.

Dr. Lerman is Mary W. Calkins Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. A specialist in tobacco control research, Dr. Lerman studies the genetic influences on tobacco use and their implications for developing successful smoking prevention and treatment programs, and on methods to influence public policy on tobacco issues. Dr. Lerman oversees a team of scientists involved in basic, clinical and epidemiological studies. She and her colleagues have demonstrated a link between smoking and genetic variants in the brain's dopamine and serotonin pathways.

Dr. Lerman is deputy director of the Abramson Cancer Center and co-director of Pennsylvania’s Center for Excellence in Cancer Communication Research. She also directs the NIH-funded Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania, which translates research in neuroscience, pharmacology, and genetics to develop pharmacological therapies for nicotine dependence. In human behavioral pharmacology studies, Lerman’s laboratory studies the effects of different medications and novel compounds on nicotine’s reinforcing effects and nicotine abstinence symptoms. Recently, she and her colleagues discovered that variation in genes in the brain’s dopamine reward pathway and in the endogenous opioid system influence how smokers respond to medications for nicotine dependence. Such research will help create targeted treatments for people to successfully quit smoking with a reduced chance of relapse.

Dr. Lerman is a former member of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Board of Scientific Advisors and the National Human Genome Research Institute Advisory Panel on the Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) Program. She is a recipient of the Society of Behavioral Medicine New Investigator Award, the American Psychological Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Health Psychology, and the American Society of Preventative Oncology Cullen Award for Tobacco Research.

This lecture and the UIC Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) are supported by the National Center for Research Resources (Award No. UL1RR029879).

For more details about Dr. Lerman’s visit and the Distinguished Lecture, see www.ihrp.uic.edu.