About the Charleston Alcohol Research Center

The Charleston Alcohol Research Center (ARC) is a P50 Center supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). The ARC, first established in 1995, has received continual funding from NIAAA that will continue through 2030.

Multidisciplinary, integrative, and translational-oriented research approaches are hallmark features of our Center. The ARC fosters a vibrant, collaborative scientific environment in which basic science researchers and clinical investigators work together on a common programmatic line of research focused on alcohol treatment related issues. The ARC is comprised of four research projects and three cores. Preclinical and clinical research projects are all focused on understanding changes in the brain that underlie the transition from moderate social drinking to uncontrolled excessive alcohol consumption.

The Charleston ARC continues its national leadership role and demonstrated success in:
• fostering multidisciplinary and translational state-of-the-art research efforts that are thematically-focused on alcohol treatment related research.
• attracting new (especially early-stage) investigators into the Center, thereby invigorating and expanding the scope of its research efforts.
• providing a stimulating intellectual environment that enriches training opportunities and professional development for the next generation of researchers in the alcohol field.

WHO WE ARE

General Background

The Charleston Alcohol Research Center (ARC) was first established at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) as a NIH/NIAAA-funded P50 Center in 1995. Since then, it has received continual support and was recently renewed for another 5-year funding period (2026-2030). Throughout its history, the Charleston ARC has maintained three distinct features – embracing multidisciplinary, integrative, and translational-oriented research efforts focused on a common research theme. Key to its sustained success, the Charleston ARC has a tradition of bringing together basic researchers and clinical investigators working in a cooperative manner to address contemporary alcohol-related research. The ARC provides crucial infrastructure that facilitates bi-directional communication among investigators from varied backgrounds and disciplines, leading to creative, coordinated, and cohesive preclinical and clinical research efforts centered on a common alcohol research theme.

Overall Theme

Since its inception, the overarching research theme of the Charleston ARC has been treatment and treatment implications for alcohol use disorder (AUD). Preclinical and clinical research efforts aim to understand how heavy alcohol use/misuse produces changes in brain systems that influence motivational and decision-making processes that lead to excessive uncontrolled drinking and increased vulnerability to relapse. Understanding how prolonged heavy alcohol drinking leads to alterations in brain function is critical for advancing development of new and novel treatment strategies that reduce risk of relapse and enhance the ability to re-gain control over drinking.

Research Focus

Current research efforts are focused on elucidating neuroadaptations that mediate and/or promote transition from social, moderate drinking to excessive alcohol consumption. Multidisciplinary and innovative approaches are employed to probe brain circuits and mechanisms underlying changes in cortical processes that contribute to enhanced perception of alcohol’s rewarding value (valence), augmented alcohol salience (relative to other rewards) and heightened brain reactivity to alcohol, as well as cortical adaptations that restrict behavioral flexibility, weaken cognitive control, and drive compulsive-like alcohol-seeking and drinking behaviors.

• Basic research projects use sophisticated cellular and molecular biology techniques to examine how chronic alcohol exposure alters functional activity of specific brain cell subpopulations within cortical regions and their projections that are relevant to processing information about alcohol reward valence, salience, and behavioral control over drinking.
• Clinical projects employ sophisticated neuroimaging and neurophysiology techniques to focus on similar cortical areas and projections in evaluating the ability of targeted neuromodulatory manipulations that alter relevant circuitry and reduce alcohol cue-induced brain activation, craving, and drinking, as well as reduce impairment of cognitive function.

Research conducted in the Charleston ARC focuses mainly on the addressing the following questions:

• How does alcohol drinking change the brain, resulting in alcohol becoming more rewarding and more salient?
• How does drinking alcohol come to be more preferred over other activities and rewards?
• Which brain circuits and subpopulations of brain cells are especially sensitive to alcohol and encode information about alcohol reward and salience that promote excessive drinking and impaired cognitive control over drinking?
• What treatment interventions are most effective in mitigating the changes in brain function that underlie excessive drinking and reduce capability to control drinking?
  
  The common underlying premise of all research projects in the Center is that progression of alcohol addiction is characterized by adaptations in brain cortical circuits and processes that contribute to enhanced alcohol reward valence and salience as well as impaired executive (cognitive) function that results in excessive, compulsive-like drinking. Collectively, research efforts in the Center reflect the multidisciplinary, integrative, and translational nature of the Center, capitalizing on diverse contemporary experimental approaches to address a common research focus and overall theme of the ARC.

Center Philosophy

Our philosophy is that alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a brain disorder, having a biological basis with neuroanatomical, neurochemical, genetic, and behavioral underpinnings. The Center’s motto, "focused on treatment through research" reflects our general belief that significant advancements in the field can best be realized by coordinated and integrated research efforts in both preclinical and clinical investigatory domains. In this vein, the Center fosters a collaborative research environment that facilitates bi-directional communication and coordination between basic research and clinical investigations. The overall goal is to coordinate and enhance research efforts that lead to the development of new and more effective treatments for those suffering with alcohol use disorder.

Center Leadership

Howard C. Becker, Ph.D., Center Director and Director of the Administrative Core

Dr. Becker is Professor in the Departments of Neuroscience and Psychiatry at MUSC, and Senior Research Career Scientist in the Department of Veterans Affairs. He also serves as Scientific Director of the NIAAA-supported multi-site Integrative Neuroscience Initiative on Alcoholism – Stress (INIAstress) Consortium, which is focused on elucidating mechanisms underlying alcohol-stress interactions. He has over a 35-year history of research, leadership, and service to the alcohol field. He served as President of the national Research Society on Alcohol and is the recipient of the 2026 Seixas Award for distinguished service to the alcohol field. He is nationally and internationally recognized for his research contributions in the area of animal models of alcohol dependence and relapse behavior, mechanisms underlying excessive drinking, and research devoted to discovery and evaluation of potential new therapeutics for the treatment of alcohol use disorder.

Patrick J. Mulholland, Ph.D., Center Associate Director & Pilot Core Co-Director

Dr. Mulholland is a Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry, Vice-Chair of Neuroscience, and he also holds the Admiral Pihl Endowed Chair in Neuroscience. He has an established leadership role at MUSC and is highly recognized for his significant contributions to the alcohol research field. He directs a highly productive and innovative research program, employing state-of-the-art tools to probe molecular and neurophysiological adaptations that underlie plasticity-related consequences of chronic alcohol, including excessive drinking, cognitive impairments, and negative affective behaviors.

John W. Woodward, Ph.D., Center Scientific Director

Dr. Woodward is a Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry at MUSC. He is highly regarded as a leader in the alcohol field, having over 35-years of experience in conducting molecular, neurophysiological, neurochemical, and behavioral studies on mechanisms of alcohol’s actions. He has been a significant contributor to the research and educational missions of the Center for many years. He has a broad perspective on the value of translational approaches to research in the field and has provided expert scientific guidance and oversight of research activities connected to the Center. Also, he is Director of the NIAAA-funded Institutional (T32) Training grant since 2003.

Locations & Contacts

The Charleston Alcohol Research Center is located within the Drug Discovery Building and Institute of Psychiatry on the campus of the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). 

Contact

Howard C. Becker, Ph.D.
Charleston Alcohol Research Center
Medical University of South Carolina
Drug Discovery Building- Room 207
70 President Street
Charleston, SC 29425 USA

Phone: 843-792-7723
Email: beckerh@musc.edu

Center Governance

The Center has three committees provide input to the Director in guiding his stewardship of the ARC. The Executive Committee and Steering Committee are internal committees, while the Program Advisory Committee is an external committee.

Executive Committee: Center Director (Dr. Becker); Center Associate Director (Dr. Mulholland); Center Scientific Director (Dr. Woodward); Pilot Core Co-Director (Dr. McTeague)

Steering Committee: Center Director; Executive Committee members; Research Project PIs/Co-Is; Pilot Core PIs/Co-Is

Program Advisory Committee:
Bruce D. Batholow, Ph.D. (University of Iowa)
Joyce Besheer, Ph.D. (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill)
Patricia H. Janak, Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins University)
Lorenzo Leggio, M.D., Ph.D. (NIH-NIAAA/NIDA Intramural Research Program)
David M. Lovinger, Ph.D. (NIH-NIAAA Intramural Research Program Director)
Graeme Mason, Ph.D. (Yale University)