Dr. Gary Wand to deliver 7th Annual Jack Mendelson Honorary Lecture at the National Institutes of Health
News Release
What: The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health, announces that Gary S. Wand, M.D., will deliver the 7th Annual Jack Mendelson Honorary Lecture. Dr. Wand is an internationally recognized neuroendocrinologist and the inaugural Rivière Professor in Endocrinology and Metabolism at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The title of his presentation is “Cortisol Dysregulation and Alcoholism: Consequence, Correlation or Causality?”
Who: Dr. Wand’s research has advanced our understanding of the genetic and environmental determinants of the stress response and has elucidated how excessive stress hormone production may contribute to neurobiological conditions such as alcohol and drug disorders.
Some of Dr. Wand’s seminal discoveries include identifying unique pharmacological responses to naloxone in individuals at increased risk for alcohol use disorders, identifying specific hormonal responses in subjects with alcohol use disorders, and characterizing human brain neurochemical changes using imaging in subjects with substance use disorders.
Dr. Wand is studying the epigenetic modulation of stress and cortisol exposure in rodent and human models, based on the hypothesis that specific epigenetic events affect how much cortisol an individual produces, which in turn influences dopamine transmission.
Dr. Wand received his medical degree and subsequent training in internal medicine from the George Washington University. Following post-doctoral training in Endocrinology and Metabolism at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, he was a fellow in the peptide laboratories of Richard Mains, Ph.D. and Betty Eipper, Ph.D. in JHU’s Department of Neuroscience. Dr. Wand then joined the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
In 2000, NIAAA and the NIH honored Dr. Wand with a 10-year Merit Award to continue his research on the role of the HPA axis in alcoholism. He has also received numerous local and national “Best Doctor” awards. Dr. Wand is the author of more than 175 articles and chapters and is on the editorial board of several journals.
When: Thursday, March 19th at 1:30 p.m. EDT
Where: Masur Auditorium, NIH Building 10, Bethesda, Maryland
Videocast: This event will be videocast online; visit www.videocast.nih.gov for details.
Background: NIAAA established the Jack Mendelson Honorary Lecture Series as a tribute to Dr. Jack Mendelson, who made remarkable scientific contributions to the field of clinical alcohol research. The purpose of this honorary lecture series is to highlight clinical/human research in the alcohol field by an outstanding investigator who has made significant and long-term contributions to our understanding of alcoholism susceptibility, alcohol’s effects on the brain and other organs, and the prevention and treatment of alcohol use disorders. NIAAA is pleased to present this series of scientific lectures to acknowledge the advances researchers are making in a wide range of alcohol-related areas of clinical research, and to honor the memory of an individual whose exciting and pioneering research with human alcoholics remains relevant today.
For additional information about the lecture see: http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/about-niaaa/our-work/research-portfolio/projec…
The Mendelson Honorary Lecture is free and open to the public. Sign language interpreters will be provided. For other reasonable accommodations or further information call Joanna Mayo, 301-443-3860, or visit www.niaaa.nih.gov. For TTY callers, please call the above number through the Federal Relay Service at 1-800-877-8339.