The Alcohol Center for Translational Genetics grew out of discoveries made at
the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center (EGCRC).
The EGCRC was founded in 1980 as a non-profit institute affiliated with
the University of California at San Francisco
(UCSF) in which all faculty hold appointments in the UCSF Department of Neurology.
Its original mission was to study the neurobiology of alcoholism.
Founded with investigators trained in molecular and cell biology who mainly used in vitro
cell culture systems, the EGCRC recruited new faculty with expertise in human and invertebrate
genetics in the early 1990s.
With this expansion came the opportunity to conduct forward genetic screens in Drosophila
melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans, which succeeded in identifying several proteins
that regulate behavioral responses to ethanol. During this time the EGCRC also recruited
and developed faculty proficient in the generation of transgenic mouse models and in behavioral
pharmacology, systems neuroscience, functional imaging, and human genetics.
This combined expertise fostered the development of a highly integrated group of investigators
with a common interest in addiction but skilled in different model systems and technologies.
The EGCRC currently employs twelve principal investigators.
During the past decade, the mission of the EGCRC expanded to include all of substance and select
comorbid conditions such as anxiety, depression, pain, and schizophrenia.
To create a focus for alcohol research within the EGCRC, a subgroup of EGCRC investigators formed
the ACTG, an NIAAA-funded alcohol research center to maintain a core focus on integrated alcohol
studies at the EGCRC and to expand interest in alcohol research at UCSF.
The approach of the ACTG is to take novel gene products found to regulate responses to ethanol in
cell culture, ex vivo, or invertebrate models and examine them in mammalian model systems and in
humans to determine if they regulate behavioral responses to alcohol and contribute to the risk of
developing an alcohol use disorder. Such studies are necessary to determine if any of these novel
proteins are potential drug targets for the development of new therapies to treat alcoholism and if
they are associated with risk of alcoholism in humans.
Three ACTG Research Components and three Pilot Projects are serviced by three Scientific Core
Components: the Animal and Behavior Core, the Transgenic and Imaging Core and the Genomics Core.
The ACTG works closely with the
EGCRC Preclinical
Development Program, which provides guidance for generating patents, licensing discoveries, and
obtaining chemical compounds for testing in animals.
