About Us
The ULARC members are a highly multidisciplinary group. Our investigators include faculty from 13 departments and 6 colleges. The Center was officially developed in 2006, formalizing an arrangement among investigators with diverse interests, many of whom had been working together for years.
- In 2008, we successfully competed for a P01 Alcohol Planning Center (P01AA017103) which was funded for 3 years.
- We are building on the success the ULARC has had through this NIAAA P01.
- UofL recognized and rewarded the importance of these collaborations and the translational research performed by ULARC investigators by providing >20,000 ft² of contiguous, state-of-the-art, open laboratory and office space in the new Clinical and Translational Research Building in 2009.
Goals of Center
The University of Louisville Alcohol Research Center (ULARC) was created to serve as a regional and national resource to investigate mechanisms of alcohol-induced organ injury and to develop new agents/interventions to prevent/treat this organ injury, both of which represent important unmet research needs.
The specific aims of the ULARC are to
- facilitate interdisciplinary approaches and serve as a regional/national resource for the study of nutrition and alcohol-induced organ injury
- provide a robust pilot project program and comprehensive education and research training in order to develop the next generation of alcohol investigators
- develop potential therapeutic targets/interventions for alcohol induced organ injury based on the mechanistic research of the ULARC and translate knowledge/interventions to the community.
Highlights
- We interact with
- intramural NIAAA investigators
- investigators at other universities
- investigators in industry.
- We are the only NIH-Alcohol Center to focus on nutrition. Nutrition impacts critical areas ranging from intestinal barrier dysfunction to epigenetics.
- We actively engage trainees at all levels (beginning in high school) in alcohol-induced organ injury research and education,
- Our major goal is prevention/treatment of alcohol-induced organ injury with nutritional agents and products.