Alcohol Training Program

About the Program

The Alcohol Training Program is an Institutional Research Training Program funded by a T32 training grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The program supports the training of predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows in basic science, translational, and clinical research on alcohol problems as they are related to neuroscience and behavior.  Intertwined with the Waggoner Center for Alcohol & Addiction Research, our program provides state-of-the-art research training with a diverse and highly collaborative group of faculty members from seven research units (Behavioral Neuroscience, Clinical Psychology, Molecular Biosciences, Neurology, Neuroscience, Pharmacology-Toxicology, and Psychiatry) and four graduate programs (Cellular and Molecular Biology, Neuroscience, Pharmacology-Toxicology, and Psychology). Research areas include cellular and animal models as well as human subjects research across a breadth of innovative approaches including molecular biology and genetics, bioinformatics, cellular imaging, electrophysiology, neuroanatomy, neurochemistry, pharmacology, human imaging, and behavior.

Eligibility: Trainees must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

For more information and details about application procedures, contact Dr. Kim Nixon, Training Grant Director.

See other programs across the nation: 
https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/major-initiatives/institutional-research-training-programs

Current Openings, News, and More Information

For the latest updates on the Alcohol Training Program, please view our information document.

View Document

Visit the T32 Events page to learn more about the many events hosted by the Alcohol T32 program.

Alcohol Training Program Faculty

Dr. Kimberly Nixon

Kim Nixon

Director, Professor/Pharmacology
Novel mechanisms of target identification and drug discovery for alcoholic neuropathology

Dr. Jorge Almeida

Jorge Almeida

Associate Professor/Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Neuroimaging research focusing on the use of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to investigate biomarkers of disorders

Dr. Nigel Atkinson

Nigel Atkinson

Professor/Neurobiology
Molecular and genetic mechanisms of alcohol effects on ion channels in Drosophila

Dr. Anton Avancena wearing a blazer and collared shirt, smiling while wearing glasses.

Anton L.V. Avanceña

Assistant Professor of Health Outcomes 
Understanding the health, economic, and social consequences of alcohol misuse and evaluating treatments, and population-level interventions that reduce the burden of alcohol use. 

Dr. Josh Cisler

Josh Cisler

Associate Professor/Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Specializes in the treatment of PTSD and other traumatic stress-related symptoms in adults, primarily using treatment modalities of exposure therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy

Dr. Juan Dominguez

Juan M. Dominguez

Professor/Psychology
Neural-endocrine regulation of motivated behaviors and associated disorders like addiction

Dr. Johann Eberhart

Johann Eberhart

Professor/Molecular Biosciences
Analyzes crest cell behavior in zebrafish, looking not only into the signaling pathways involved in cell behaviors, but also the genetic and environmental modifiers mediating these behaviors

Dr. Laura Fonken

Laura Fonken

Assistant Professor/Pharmacology
Circadian and neuroimmune interactions of alcohol use

Dr. Kim Fromme

Kim Fromme

Professor/Psychology
Psychosocial aspects of alcohol research

Dr. Hongjoo (Joanne) Lee

Hongjoo (Joanne) Lee

Professor/Psychology
Roles of amygdala-dopamine systems in learning and memory

Dr. Elizabeth Lippard

Elizabeth Lippard

Assistant Professor/Dell Medical School, Psychiatry
Understanding neural systems related to risk, onset and early disease progression in affective and alcohol use disorders

Dr. Mangieri wearing a dark sleeveless turtleneck and smiling.

Regina Mangieri

Research Assistant Professor/Pharmacology & Toxicology
Examining how ethanol exposure and/or neuroimmune signaling pathways regulate cellular physiology and synaptic transmission in the brain

Dr. Michela Marinelli

Michela (Micky) Marinelli

Associate Professor/Neuroscience
Understanding the biological bases of addiction

Dr. R. Dayne Mayfield

R. Dayne Mayfield

Research Professor/Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research
Identification of molecular mechanisms of alcohol action using genomic and proteomic approaches

Dr. Esther Melamed

Esther Melamed

Assistant Professor/Neurology
Alcohol’s role in neuroinflammation in multiple sclerosis

Dr. Robert Messing

Robert Messing

Professor/Neurology
Identification of drug targets and strategies that could lead to new treatments for substance use disorders

Dr. Hitoshi Morikawa

Hitoshi Morikawa

Associate Professor/Neurobiology
Neurophysiology of the brain reward circuit and drug addiction

Dr. Luis Natividad

Luis Natividad

Assistant Professor/Pharmacology 
High-throughput analyses of the neuroproteome to gain insight on the mechanisms of drug and alcohol addiction

Dr. Jon Pierce

Jon Pierce

Associate Professor/Neurobiology
The underlying causes and potential cures for Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease, and how drugs such as ethanol and anesthetics affect the nervous system