School of Medicine

Comprehensive Alcohol Research Center

About Faculty LSUHSC CARC
Scott Edwards, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Physiology LSUHSC School of Medicine
Director of the Information Dissemination Core
Research Interests: Investigation of neurobiological changes associated with altered motivational systems in drug and alcohol dependence.

Current research focus is on the interaction of addiction and chronic pain.

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Tekeda Ferguson, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Epidemiology LSUHSC School of Public Health
Director Data Management Unit
Research Interests:  Chronic disease epidemiology, human studies, and surveillance data collection and analysis. Effects of alcohol use with traditional pathophysiologic measures and the social environment on chronic disease development in people living with HIV.

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Harry J. Gould, III, MD, PhD
Tom Benson Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience
Research Interests:  Mechanisms in the development and maintenance of chronic pain. Pain management and the role of voltage-gated sodium channels in the biology and management of advanced carcinomas

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Patricia E. Molina, MD, PhD

Richard Ashman Professor and Department Head of Physiology LSUHSC School of Medicine
Director Alcohol and Drug Abuse Center of Excellence
CARC Principal Investigator | Director T-32 Alcohol Training Grant

Research Interests:  Intersection of unhealthy alcohol use with mechanisms involved in maintaining metabolic homeostasis in HIV infection. Focus on elucidating the pathophysiological mechanisms that ultimately contribute to increased risk of comorbid conditions in persons living with HIV.

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Steve Nelson, MD

John H. Seabury Professor
Department of Medicine/Pulmonary/Critical Care
Dean LSUHSC School of Medicine
Scientific Advisor

Research Interests: Effects of alcohol on HIV infection and disease progression; cytokine and chemokines responses; neutrophil function; and bacterial pneumonia.

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Lauren E. Richey, MD, MPH, FIDSA
Associate Professor of Medicine, LSUHSC
Medical Director of the Infectious Disease Center and HIV Outpatient Program
Research Interests: Health disparities and modifiable risk factors, such as tobacco, alcohol, and substance abuse in people living with HIV and Hepatitis C and factors affecting their linkage and retention in care.

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Michael Salling, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy
Research Interests: 

Understand the consequences of drugs of abuse on neuronal function and how that might affect cognition and future drug abuse.

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Robert Siggins, PhD
Assistant Professor of Physiology
Department of Physiology LSUHSC School of Medicine
Associate Director Analytical Core
Research Interests: 

Alcohol- and HIV-induced cytotoxic T cell immunosenescence and exhaustion. Mitochondrial dysregulation in T cells. Alcohol- and HIV-associated precocious biological aging

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Liz Simon, MVSc., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Physiology
Department of Physiology LSUHSC School of Medicine
Co-Director of Experimental and Analytical Core
Research Interests: Intersection of alcohol with mechanisms responsible for proliferation and differentiation of stem/progenitor cells and its relevance to metabolic homeostatic control.

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Katherine P. Theall, PhD
Professor
Department of Social, Behavioral, and Population Sciences
Department of Epidemiology
Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine

Research Interests: Policy, social network, and community influences on health disparities, including women and children's health, with a particular emphasis on neighborhood conditions; race and gender inequities; substance use and mental health; and social epidemiologic theory and methods.

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David A. Welsh, MD
Howard A. Buechner Professor of Medicine
Section of Pulmonary/Critical Care LSUHSC School of Medicine
Professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology
Co-Director of Experimental and Analytical Core
Research Interests:  Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Maladaptive Health Behaviors (Alcohol, Tobacco, Substance Use). Lung Host Defense. Biological Age & Geriatric Syndrome Pathogenesis. Microbiota - Host Interactions. Inflamm-aging and Immunosenescence.

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