Empowering Asian and Pacific Islander Communities Through Data, Partnership, and Purpose While the Alcohol Research Group (ARG) is well known for its population-level analyses on how alcohol and drug use impact our health, it’s also a place where scientists are deeply committed to engaging with communities, partnering with local organizations to support the people they serve in meaningful, practical ways. One such scientist is Scientist Camillia K. Lui, PhD, whose career has focused on … [Read more...]
Spotlight
Additions to the National Alcohol Survey Reflect Societal Shifts
Since the National Alcohol Survey (NAS) first launched in 1964, ARG researchers have sought to increase its impact by developing a more robust and relevant tool with which to look at the nation’s alcohol consumption. At the same time, the survey has evolved to reflect changes in our society, our population, and how we communicate with each other. Over the years, a substantial number of NAS-affiliated independent grants have used NAS and additional data to focus on nationally-salient emerging … [Read more...]
NIAAA Funds Training Program for Another 5 Years
The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) awarded another five-year grant to ARG’s training program, which has been operating since 1971. In collaboration with the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, the program fosters the development of trainees as active researchers in the field of alcohol studies. To date, the program has mentored 266 fellows with three predocs and three postdocs supported each year. Through a highly interactive … [Read more...]
SBIR Subaward Supports Innovative APP
ARG received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant sub-award in collaboration with BrightOutcome, an innovative software development company that focuses on creating applications to improve population health. This contract will see the research team through Phase II of a project that aims to enhance a previously developed multi-translated alcohol measures catalog, which featured Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages. The current prototype contains 127 … [Read more...]
How Place Affects Your Health
For ARG Scientist, Katherine Karriker-Jaffe, PhD, what began as an interest in health and social justice has developed into a passion to better understand how our neighborhoods – where we live, work and play – influence whether we drink, smoke or use other substances and whether we have problems due to substance use. While there is a long tradition of looking at a neighborhood’s impact on our health, there has been less work done on sub-group effects, that is, how specific groups of people … [Read more...]
Celebrating 60 Years of Research
At ARG's holiday party, where colleagues, friends and family gathered in the organization's offices in Emeryville, CA, I was struck by the diversity of people in attendance. While young children scribbled in coloring books in an adjoining room with parents watching on, older individuals sat together in the reception area, discussing the old days when ARG consisted of a handful of people intent on changing the world of alcohol research. One of those individuals was Walter Clark who was hired … [Read more...]
Visiting Scholar from Brazil Joins ARG
ARG is pleased to welcome visiting scholar, Gabriel Andreuccetti, PhD, who has moved from Sao Paulo to spend a year working with Senior Scientist Cheryl Cherpitel, PhD. This is his second time visiting ARG and we're excited to have him back in the Bay Area. Recently, we spent some time with Gabriel to learn more about his work and what brought him to ARG. ARG: First, it's so nice to have you here, Gabriel. For people who don't know you, can you tell us a little about where you’re from? … [Read more...]
Over 40 Years & Still Going Strong
When the National Alcohol Survey (NAS) first began in the mid-1960s, over 2500 people across the US were interviewed. Since then, the NAS has grown to include almost 8,000 US adults enabling both understanding the mechanisms underlying drinking behaviors and the long-term monitoring of our nation’s drinking patterns and its associated problems. While our drinking habits and relationship to alcohol have changed, measuring such changes provides a greater understanding of how alcohol impacts our … [Read more...]
Congratulations to Paul Gilbert
It’s with sadness that we say goodbye to Associate Scientist Paul Gilbert. Having recently completed his postdoctoral fellowship at ARG, Paul will begin his academic career as an assistant professor in the Department of Community and Behavioral Health at The University of Iowa College of Public Health this fall. With a Master’s of Science in Health and Social Behavior from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and a PhD in Health Behavior from the University of North Carolina at Chapel … [Read more...]
Digital Tool to Prevent Prenatal Drinking
A new clinical trial that will launch in September is an example of an innovative tool that can help educate and inform women of the risks of drinking during pregnancy. To find out more about this project and how it will impact women’s health, we caught up with Principal Investigator and ARG Scientist Madhabika Nayak. Tell me about your project and how it will support women’s health. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) continues to be a problem despite all the preventative measures … [Read more...]
