The M. June and J. Virgil Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research (WCAAR) brings together UT researchers working on biological and molecular mechanisms of addiction. Dr. Robert Messing is the director of the center. Faculty have laboratories in the Molecular Biology building and thirty faculty from multiple disciplines, including Neuroscience, Pharmacology, and Psychology, participate in the Center.

The faculty use a range of techniques, including transcriptome analysis, mutation of brain proteins and construction of mutant mice, to define sites of drug action and molecular mechanisms of addiction. The experimental approaches include human, rodent, drosophila, c elegans and zebra fish. A major effort of the Center is the identification of genomic mechanisms underlying alcoholism and drug addiction with the goal of new therapeutic approaches.

Fellowships for support of graduate students working in the area of addiction are available from funds administered by the Center. These fellowships are supported by income from endowments from the Fred Murphy Jones and Homer Lindsey Bruce Estates.

ILS Faculty Members:

R. Adron Harris
Richard Aldrich
Nigel Atkinson
Johann Eberhart
Andrew Ellington
Vishwanath Iyer
Stephen F. Martin
Robert O. Messing (WCAAR Director)
S. John Mihic
Edward Mills
Hitoshi Morikawa
Richard Morrisett
Jon Pierce-Shimomura
Kimberly Raab-Graham