Our Advisors
Raymond F. Anton, M.D.
Raymond F. Anton, M.D. is an Addiction Psychiatrist and Clinical Neuroscientist. He is a Distinguished University Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC where he holds the Thurmond Wellness Endowed Chair. He the Scientific Director of an NIAAA funded Alcohol Research Center, and the Director of the Clinical Neurobiology Laboratory in the Department of Psychiatry.
Dr. Anton is a Past – President of the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) and served currently on the Board of Directors (Secretary) of the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism (ISBRA). He is an elected Fellow to the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He is also currently serving as Chair of the ACTIVE workgroup, a consortium of academics, government agencies and the pharmaceutical industry whose task it is to define the best methods for clinical trials for alcohol use disorders. He has received a prestigious Career Development Award (K05) from NIAAA to assist in mentoring junior researchers and developing genetic and brain imaging technologies.
He is internationally known for his expertise in Alcohol Use Disorder pharmacotherapy and the use of lab tests to identify various drinking patterns. He has published over 300 articles and book chapters and has active funding for incorporating neuroimaging and genetics into alcohol treatment trials. He also helped pioneer the clinical utility of the CDT blood test for the detection and monitoring of heavy alcohol use and has been a member of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry workgroup on CDT measurement standardization. In June 2017, he was awarded the prestigious Henri Begleiter Award for Research Excellence by the Research Society on Alcoholism.
Sudie E. Back, Ph.D.
Dr. Sudie E. Back is a licensed clinical psychologist and Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). In addition, she is Staff Psychologist at the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in Charleston, SC. Over the past two decades, her research has focused on the intersection of substance use disorders (SUD) and traumatic stress. Her work includes both pharmacological and behavioral clinical trials focused on the development of effective interventions for the treatment of PTSD and comorbid SUD. In addition, her team utilizes neuroimaging methodologies to investigate prognostic indicators of treatment outcome. She has received several awards, including a Fulbright Scholar Award to collaborate with scientists at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Center (NDARC), University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia on PTSD and addiction research. She is an expert in co-morbid stress-related disorders, SUD, and Alcohol Use Disorder.
In addition to research, she is actively engaged in mentorship and training. She is the PI and Director of the NIDA-funded Drug Abuse Research Training (DART) program at MUSC, which is currently in Year 15 and has trained over 200 individuals from undergraduate trainees to medical residents. Previously, she served as Co-Director of the NIDA T32 clinical postdoctoral program, Co-I on the NIDA K12 career development program, and Co-I on an NIAAA-sponsored R25 program at MUSC. She is a long-standing member of the Department’s Executive Committee on Education and Training Programs and is Co-Director of the NIAAA-sponsored Alcohol Research Center’s Pilot Project Core at MUSC. She has a strong track-record of mentorship through these programs and was awarded the MUSC Advancement of Women Faculty Award in 2020.
Howard C Becker Ph.D.
Dr. Howard C. Becker is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Neuroscience at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). He also holds the position of Senior Research Career Scientist at the RHJ Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center that is affiliated with MUSC.
Dr. Becker is the Director of the NIH/NIAAA-supported Charleston Alcohol Research Center, a multidisciplinary and translational-oriented research program with a general focus on treatment for alcohol use disorder. Dr. Becker also serves as the Scientific Director of the national multi-site NIAAA-supported Integrative Neuroscience Initiative on Alcoholism (INIAstress) Consortium, which includes multidisciplinary approaches in studying the complex relationship between stress and alcohol use/misuse.
Dr. Becker is an established investigator with over 30 years of research experience in the alcohol and addiction neuroscience field. The overall focus of his research program is elucidating neurobiological underpinnings and environmental factors that influence alcohol addiction, relapse, and dependence. The research program embraces multidisciplinary and translational approaches (molecular, neurochemical, behavioral), with the goal of identifying and evaluating new therapeutic targets and strategies for treating problem drinking and alcohol use disorder.
He is widely recognized as an international leader in the alcohol research field, as evidenced by his published research accomplishments, editorial and grant reviewing service, and being frequently invited to present his research findings at numerous national and international scientific conferences. He has developed a number of clinically relevant animal models that are widely utilized in the field and serve as a platform for his work in evaluating new potential therapeutics for treatment of alcohol-related problems. He is actively engaged in educational and training programs, having mentored numerous graduate and postdoctoral students in alcohol research. He provides mentorship and guidance for several junior faculty (both basic researchers and clinical investigators) in supporting their career development in the alcohol research field.
Marcelo F. Lopez Ph.D.
For nearly 20 years, Dr. Marcelo Lopez has developed and used animal models to study consequences of alcohol use/abuse. In particular, he conducts behavioral pharmacology studies utilizing numerous rodent models of alcohol exposure. This includes studying alcohol dependence and relapse drinking involving a mouse model of the chronic intermittent ethanol (CIE) exposure that produces escalation of drinking. He has many years of experience characterizing genetic, neurobiological, and behavioral (motivational) factors that influence alcohol self-administration in this CIE model. His research also focuses on studying the complex interaction of stress and alcohol and, more specifically, effects of stress exposure on drinking in the context of alcohol dependence. With this research focus, he has been an active participant in the INIAstress consortium since 2012. He has significantly contributed to the development of a model that demonstrates stress (forced swim stress; FSS) enhancement of drinking in dependent mice. This CIE-FSS Drinking model is now broadly used in several INIAstress research projects. He leads a Core in the INIAstress Consortium that aims to evaluate promising medications on drinking in this model. Much of this work has entailed the evaluation of neurobiological mechanisms that could be associated with drinking in this model of alcohol dependence and relapse drinking.
Rob Miller
Rob Miller is the Founder and CEO of Ventral Stream Consulting, LLC. His past professional experience includes 17 years with Eli Lilly and Company, Abbott Laboratories, and AbbVie focused primarily on neuroscience pipeline opportunity assessments and commercialization strategies from discovery through early stage clinical trials. His past biopharma experience includes opportunity assessments and commercialization strategies in partnership with R&D colleagues for three separate SUD strategy projects and go/no-go milestones across six different novel MOAs targeting a range of SUD indications, including AUDs.
In addition to his consulting work, Rob also leads strategy and market development for a non-profit behavioral health treatment provider based in Chicago. This role helps him stay grounded in the practical realities of treating SUDs and the importance of developing new pharmacologic options.