The Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) has announced that Lorenzo Leggio, M.D., Ph.D., M.Sc., will receive the 2016 Early Career Investigator Award. Dr. Leggio is Chief of the Section on Clinical Psychoneuroendocrinology and Neuropsychopharmacology (CPN), a joint laboratory of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). 

RSA presents this award annually to an early career investigator who has demonstrated research excellence, potential to be a future leader and a commitment to the alcohol field.  In selecting Dr. Leggio, the RSA Awards Committee cited the “great breadth” of his research, "from human clinical work to animal science, clinical trials, ghrelin work, and work on the gut liver brain axis." 

 

Dr. Leggio shares the 2016 honor with Sarah Feldstein Ewing, Ph.D.  The award presentation is planned for the closing ceremony of the upcoming RSA annual scientific meeting on Wednesday, June 29. In addition, as part of the award honors Dr. Leggio also will serve as a plenary speaker at RSA’s 2017 program. 

 

Dr. Leggio’s clinical research has been primarily focused on the treatment of alcohol use disorder, with a special emphasis on the role of feeding-related as well as GABAergic pathways; and on the medical consequences of alcohol use disorder, with a special emphasis on alcoholic liver disease.  His laboratory has pioneered clinical research on the role of neuroendocrine signaling in alcohol-seeking behaviors via human laboratory studies.

 

For more information about Dr. Leggio and his lab, visit https://www.niaaa.nih.gov//research/niaaa-intramural-program/niaaa-labo…