image: Subhash Pandey and other researchers at UIC's Center for Alcohol Research in Epigenetics will continue their work on how long-term alcohol use affects the structure and function of brain cells. Pandey is director of the center and a senior research career scientist at Jesse Brown VA Medical Center. (Photo: Jenny Fontaine/UIC)
Credit: (Photo: Jenny Fontaine/UIC)
September 9, 2025, Chicago - The University of Illinois Chicago’s Center for Alcohol Research in Epigenetics has been awarded an $8.3 million five-year grant renewal to continue its research on alcohol use disorder. The grant renewal from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, under the National Institutes of Health, will fuel cutting-edge research into cellular interaction in areas of the brain that are key to alcohol addiction.
Alcohol use disorder can lead to debilitating medical conditions such as brain diseases, cancers and heart and liver disease. According to the National Institutes of Health, alcohol misuse costs the United States $249 billion annually in lost labor and productivity, health care costs, property damage and crashes and criminal justice system resources. Three-quarters of that annual cost is tied to binge drinking.
This is the 11th year of the grant at UIC. With it, psychiatry professor Subhash C. Pandey and his interdisciplinary team at UIC’s Center for Alcohol Research in Epigenetics will continue to study how long-term alcohol use affects the structure and function of brain cells through genetic and epigenetic (chemical changes in the DNA or in the proteins wrapped around DNA) interactions. These studies will provide a better understanding of the biological basis of alcohol use disorder. Pandey is the Joseph A. Flaherty, MD, endowed professor of psychiatry and director of the College of Medicine’s Center for Alcohol Research in Epigenetics.
“Understanding these complex brain mechanisms could lead to more targeted treatments for alcohol use disorder, ultimately improving the lives of individuals suffering from this chronic disease,” Pandey said.
In addition to faculty from the College of Medicine’s psychiatry, biophysics and physiology departments and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ psychology and biological sciences departments, the Center for Alcohol Research and Epigenetics includes faculty from the UIC Research Resources Center and the Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
“As a hub for genomic and epigenetic studies in alcohol use disorders, the Center for Alcohol Research in Epigenetics is an example of great teamwork that cuts across our departments and disciplines, colleges and campuses,” said Dr. Anand Kumar, head of the department of psychiatry in the College of Medicine.
First funded in 2015 by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the Center for Alcohol Research and Epigenetics is one of just four centers in the Midwest dedicated to alcohol research. The center trains the next generation of neuroscientists and medical researchers in alcohol research and, through its community outreach program, shares scientific knowledge about the neurobiology of addiction within the Chicagoland area.
Other researchers involved with research at the center are Mark Brodie, Elizabeth Glover, Katherine McMurray, Dennis Grayson, James Auta, Mark Maienschein-Cline, Ruixuan Gao, Graziano Pinna, Harish Krishnan, Huaibo Zhang, Emma Childs, Kevin Boergens and Dennis Sparta, all from UIC.