Substance Use & Addiction Research at the UW

Interested in learning more about substance use and addiction research at ADAI? We host annual Open Houses (virtual) that bring together folks from our various centers and teams at ADAI to talk about the work they’re doing in the field and how you can get involved! To get notified about our next Open House, you can follow us on social media or subscribe to our News & Events blog.

The University of Washington is a world leader in addiction research ranging in scope from molecular pharmacology, to prevention, treatment strategies, impacts on individuals and communities, to social policy. Sponsored research from NIH and other funders brings in tens of millions of dollars annually to support the work of collaborative centers, independent researchers, and graduate and postdoctoral education in addiction at the University.

Learn more about addictions research in the UW Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences here.

UW Substance Use & Addiction Research Centers:

Addictions, Drug & Alcohol Institute (ADAI)
Director: Susan M. Ferguson, PhD
ADAI (formerly the Alcohol & Drug Abuse Institute) was established in 1973 as an independent, multidisciplinary research center at the UW. Its mission is to advance research, policy, and practice in order to improve the lives of individuals and communities affected by alcohol and drug use and addiction. Areas of special emphasis include: testing new addiction treatment options in community settings; opioid use and overdose prevention; cannabis research and education; alcohol and drug use by pregnant and parenting women; and workforce development for substance use disorder treatment and recovery professionals in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.

Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship
Director: Jonathan Buchholz, MD
The Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship is a fully accredited one-year program for residents entering their PGY-5 year after completion of a General Psychiatry Residency Program. The overarching mission of the program is to provide psychiatric physicians with advanced training in the skills, clinical judgment, and knowledge necessary to the practice of Addiction Psychiatry to enable them to assume leadership positions in the field. Close work with a range of interdisciplinary treatment teams is a core aspect of the residency.

Center for Novel Therapeutics in Addiction Psychiatry (NTAP)
Directors: Nathan Sackett, MD, MS
The mission of the UW Center for Novel Therapeutics in Addiction Psychiatry is to create powerful new ways of treating people struggling with alcohol, opioid, tobacco and other addictions by combining psychedelic compounds with evidence-based behavioral interventions.

Center for the Study of Health and Risk Behaviors (CSHRB)
Director: Mary Larimer, PhD
CSHRB is dedicated to cutting-edge, culturally-sensitive research and dissemination in which health and risk behaviors interact. It is focused on the etiology of risky behaviors and the development of empirically-based prevention and treatment for risk reduction.

Chavkin Lab (Neuropharmacology)
Director: Charles Chavkin, PhD
Dr. Chavkin’s work focuses on the molecular basis of drug addiction including: 1) the mechanisms regulating synaptic transmission in the mammalian brain, 2) the molecular mechanisms regulating opioid receptor functioning, and 3) the role of the endogenous dynorphin opioids in the regulation of mood and drug addiction risk. Dr. Chavkin and his team uses a combination of electrophysiological, anatomical, and molecular approaches to the understanding of the role of opioid neuropeptides as neurotransmitters in the brain.

Fetal Alcohol and Drug Unit (FADU)
Director: Susan Stoner, PhD
FADU conducts research and disseminates information on fetal alcohol and drug effects, provides consultation for persons thought to be affected by prenatal exposure, and provides training in human behavioral teratology. Since 2013 FADU has been a unit within the Addictions, Drug & Alcohol Institute.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Diagnostic and Prevention Network (FAS DPN)
Director: Susan Astley, PhD
FAS DPN is a network of five WA State community-based clinics linked by the core clinical/research/training clinic at the UW Center on Human Development and Disability. Its mission is FASD prevention through screening, diagnosis, intervention, research, and training.

Harm Reduction Research and Treatment Center (HaRRT Center)
Directors: Susan E. Collins, PhD and Seema L. Clifasefi, PhD, MSW
The HaRRT Center works collaboratively with substance users, community members and organizations to develop, conduct, evaluate and disseminate evidence-based interventions that help to reduce substance-related harm, improve quality of life, and promote social justice and racial equity for affected individuals and their communities.

Innovative Programs Research Group (IPRG)
Director: Denise Walker, PhD
IPRG conducts studies designed to achieve a greater knowledge of the characteristics and needs of underserved populations. Their projects assess the effectiveness of innovative means for reducing barriers to the delivery of effective social and mental health services.

Neumaier Lab
Director: John Neumaier, MD, PhD
This lab investigates the interface of pharmacology, molecular neuroscience, and behavior. It uses strategies that span several levels of organization from RNA regulation, protein translation, cellular plasticity, and neural circuit level analysis of complex behaviors relating to stress and addiction models. It uses rat and mouse behavioral models as well as in vitro cultures of cell lines and primary neurons to study components of intracellular signaling pathways.

Neurobiology of Addiction, Pain, and Emotion (NAPE Center)
Director: Charles Chavkin, PhD
The NAPE Center addresses the challenging interplay of chronic pain, drug addiction and depression, scientists in the UW departments of Pharmacology, Anesthesiology and Psychiatry are working together to understand how the nervous system processes sensory information and how that transmission is affected by chronic pain and mood disorders.

Neuroscience of Addiction
Director: Susan M. Ferguson, PhD
This research lab at Seattle Children’s Center for Integrative Brain Research uses a multi-level approach, combining molecular biology, circuit-mapping and behavioral neuroscience, to understand the development of behaviors associated with drug reward and addiction, as well as in the processes that underlie decision-making, motivation and impulsivity. They also examine how environmental factors such as extended exposure to sensory stimulation during childhood and adolescence modulate the development of these behaviors.

Social Development Research Group (SDRG)
Director: Margaret Kuklinski, PhD
SDRG’s research seeks to promote achievement and success as well as prevent and treat health and behavior problems among young people. Drug use, delinquency, risky sexual behavior, violence, and school dropout are among the problems addressed.

Stella Lab: Cannabinoid Pharmacology and Neuro-Oncology
Chair: Nephi Stella, PhD
The laboratory of Dr. Nephi Stella at the University of Washington Medical School studies the molecular mechanism and therapeutic value of cannabinoid-based molecules and is developing brain-penetrant small molecules for the treatment of brain cancers.