This Project Grant award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), under the Alcohol Research Programs (CFDA 93.273) federal grant program, aims to enhance the understanding and prediction of heavy drinking episodes during the initial recovery from alcohol use disorder (AUD). The $1,373,036 award to Yale University will leverage wearable biosensor technology and advanced artificial intelligence (AI) methodologies to: Develop real-time predictive models using sensor...
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) awarded a $499,987 Project Grant (CFDA 93.273 - Alcohol Research Programs) to CFD Research Corporation, a small for-profit engineering and technology firm based in Huntsville, Alabama. The grant will be used to develop a High Throughput Alcohol Screening Platform (HT-ASP) that incorporates vascularized cortical organoids as a living biological sensor platform. The goal is to create a highly robust and genetically diverse platform for...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), under the Alcohol Research Programs (CFDA 93.273) federal grant program, provides $385,000 to Soovu Labs Inc. to develop a wearable medical device to treat anxiety and stress in individuals with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). The Phase I effort will determine optimal stimulation parameters for activating C-tactile fibers and TRPV-1 channels in the peripheral nervous system, which are believed to modulate...
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) awarded a $330,829 Project Grant under the Alcohol Research Programs (CFDA 93.273) to the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) on September 20, 2024. The grant, titled "Leveraging Alcohol Use Disorder Screening for Treatment in Routine Perioperative Care: ALLUSCARE," aims to integrate alcohol use disorder (AUD) screening and treatment into routine perioperative care. The key products and services to be delivered...
This federal Project Grant award of $366,406 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) under the Alcohol Research Programs (CFDA 93.273) will support the development of a novel human laboratory paradigm for screening alcohol use disorder (AUD) medications. The project aims to create two versions of an "ability to resist drinking" model that can assess the efficacy of AUD medications in achieving key FDA-approved endpoints, such as abstinence and reduced...
This Project Grant award, valued at $708,556.00 and sponsored by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) under the Alcohol Research Programs (CFDA 93.273) federal grant program, aims to evaluate the efficacy of a telehealth version of the Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS) intervention. The proposed research study will compare the effectiveness of the telehealth BASICS (Tele-BASICS) approach, which utilizes the Zoom application, to the...
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) awarded a $481,428 Project Grant under the Alcohol Research Programs (CFDA 93.273) to the Moses-Weitzman Health System, Inc. in Middletown, CT. The award will fund a project titled "Translating Research into Practice on Alcohol and Polysubstance Use Disorders by Educating the Interprofessional Primary Care Team." The project aims to improve the capacity of primary care providers and behavioral health professionals in...
This $399,293 Project Grant was awarded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) under the Alcohol Research Programs (CFDA 93.273) federal grant program. The award aims to demonstrate the feasibility of developing a rapid point-of-care phosphatidylethanol (PEth) competitive lateral flow immunoassay (POC-LFI) for the detection of long-term alcohol biomarkers. The grantee, Echelon Biosciences Inc., will partner with an LFI expert to improve the consistency, sensitivity,...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), under the Alcohol Research Programs (CFDA 93.273) program, will fund a longitudinal study on social cognition deficits and their impact on recovery outcomes for individuals with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). The $351,413 award will support a 5-year research project at the University of Florida to: Assess emotion processing abilities and related cognitive/affective functions in recently abstinent...
This federal Project Grant award, totaling $613,777, was provided by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) under the Alcohol Research Programs (CFDA 93.273) grant program. The award supports a 5-year study to examine transdermal alcohol concentration (TAC) biosensor features as predictors of alcohol-related consequences and alcohol use disorders (AUDs) among 500 young adults (ages 19-22) who frequently engage in heavy episodic drinking. The research will utilize a...
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER OF BEHAVIORAL ECONOMIC TASKS FOR ASSESSING ALCOHOL REINFORCER PATHOLOGY: DEVELOPMENT AND FEASIBILITY OF A COMMERCIALLY-AVAILABLE TOOL FOR CLINICAL PRACTICE - PROJECT SUMMARY ALCOHOL USE DISORDER (AUD) CONTRIBUTES TO EXCESSIVE DISABILITY, MORBIDITY, AND MORTALITY IN THE UNITED STATES. AS ONE OF THE NATION'S LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH, PUBLIC HEALTH GUIDELINES RECOMMEND CONSISTENT STANDARDIZED ALCOHOL SCREENING. HOWEVER, SCREENING FOR ALCOHOL MISUSE IS UNDERPERFORMED, LABORIOUS, AND IS SUSCEPTIBLE TO DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS AND CONCERNS ABOUT STIGMATIZING THE PATIENT. TO COMBAT THESE ISSUES, BEAM DIAGNOSTICS, INC. DEVELOPED BEACON, A COMMERCIALIZABLE ALCOHOL MISUSE DIGITAL SCREENING TOOL BASED ON THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF REINFORCER PATHOLOGY DEDICATED TO INCREASING STANDARDIZED SCREENING WITHOUT STIGMATIZING THE PATIENT. IN PHASE I OF THIS PROJECT, WE CONDUCTED A CLINICAL STUDY AT A LARGE MULTI-SITE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM SERVING APPROXIMATELY 1M PATIENTS PER YEAR AND VALIDATED BEACON AS DEMONSTRATING ROBUST PREDICTIVE ACCURACY OF ALCOHOL MISUSE AND POSITIVE REPORTS OF FEASIBILITY AND ACCEPTABILITY FROM PROVIDERS. THE GOAL OF THIS PHASE II SBIR IS TO FINALIZE BEACON'S DEVELOPMENT INTO A FULLY REALIZED COMMERCIAL PRODUCT, BOTH AS A STAND-ALONE TOOL AND AS AN INTEGRATED TOOL WITHIN AN ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORD (EMR) SYSTEM. AIM 1 WILL ITERATE AND OPTIMIZE THE USER-EXPERIENCE AND ACCESSIBILITY OF BEACON AS A PRODUCT, DEVELOP NATIONALLY REPRESENTATIVE NORMING, PRODUCE COMPREHENSIVE CLINICAL REFERENCE MATERIALS, ENSURE OFFLINE CAPABILITY, AND SPANISH-LANGUAGE TRANSLATION. AIM 2 WILL BE DEDICATED TO INTEGRATING BEACON INTO EPIC, A WIDELY USED ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORD SYSTEM WITHIN A HEALTHSYSTEM PARTNER, TO IMPROVE USABILITY, WORKFLOW CAPABILITIES, AND RECORD-KEEPING OF ALCOHOL MISUSE DIRECTLY INTO A PATIENT'S MEDICAL CHART. IN ADDITION, AIM 2 WILL LAUNCH A WAVE-STYLE EDUCATION AND IMPLEMENTATION INITIATIVE TO PROMOTE BEACON'S USE IN THREE OUTPATIENT DEPARTMENTS. FINALLY, BEAM WILL COMPLETE AN EXPLORATORY AIM SEEKING TO VALIDATE BEACON AS A MEASUREMENT-BASED CARE TOOL. AT THE CONCLUSION OF THIS PHASE II PROJECT, BEAM WILL BROUGHT BEACON TO MARKET AS A DIGITAL SCREENING APP FOR AUD, BOTH AS A STAND-ALONE PRODUCT AND AN EMR-INTEGRATED VERSION.