OBSSR Webinar Series 

 Advances in GxE Research in the Behavioral and Social Sciences

Title: Harnessing Precision Medicine to Reduce Smoking

Presenter: Laura Jean Bierut, M.D., Washington University School of Medicine 

Date: Monday, June 15, 2015 – 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm EDT

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Overview

Smoking is the largest cause of preventable mortality in the U.S. and the world, and over 40 million Americans are current cigarette smokers. Despite strong adverse consequences of smoking, cessation remains a difficult goal, and over half of current smokers report making a quit attempt in the previous year.  Clear evidence now shows that heaviness of smoking is driven by genetic variation in cholinergic nicotinic receptor subunit genes and nicotine metabolizing genes.  These same variants predict failed smoking cessation and are the strongest genetic risk factors for lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Importantly, there is evidence of a complex interplay between environments, pharmacologic treatment, and genes in the prediction successful smoking cessation. This body of work illustrates an example in achieving our goal of precision medicine: using genetic information to differentiate people who are likely to respond to pharmacologic treatment for smoking cessation from those who will likely receive little benefit.

Presenter’s Bio

Laura Jean Bierut, Ph.D.

Laura Jean Bierut, M.D. is the Alumni Endowed Professor of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Dr. Bierut graduated from Harvard Radcliffe College with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and molecular biology. She earned her medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine and completed her residency in psychiatry there. She then spent one year as a post-doctoral research fellow at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.  Dr. Bierut was awarded the 2014 Alton Ochsner Award Relating Smoking and Disease, which recognizes outstanding scientific achievements that have provided pivotal insights into the fundamental biological and clinical mechanisms that relate tobacco consumption to human disease.
Dr. Bierut has built a successful research program devoted to understanding the genetics of substance dependence.  She serves on the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse, and she is an active member in the NIDA Genetics Consortium, a national group of scientists who are leading NIDA’s efforts to understand genetic causes of substance dependence. Dr. Bierut was Principal Investigator of the first large-scale genetic study of nicotine dependence. This work led to the first report that the 5 nicotinic receptor genes on chromosome 15 and 63 nicotinic receptor genes on chromosome 8 increase a smoker’s risk for nicotine dependence.  The 5 nicotinic receptor association finding has been subsequently validated at a genome-wide significance level, and this variant has also since been identified as a risk factor for lung cancer and other smoking related illnesses. Dr. Bierut’s research team is currently studying the relationship between CHRNA5-CHRNA3-CHRNB4 variants and smoking cessation, with the goal of being able to use genetic information to personalize treatment for smoking cessation patients.

 

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