Alcohol abuse and alcoholism are major problems in the U.S. and the Western civilization and of growing concern in developing nations. Yet, in contrast to other health problems such as cancer and heart disease, where the benefits of laboratory research are now being directly applied to the bed, such is not yet the case with alcohol research. With the ultimate hope of satisfying that objective and with the immediate goal of reviewing the most promising developments in alcohol research, the 3rd Gordon Research Conference on Alcohol is being held at the Miramar Hotel in Santa Barbara, California in February 1987. At that meeting some of the most prominent researchers both from the U.S. and abroad will be invited to participate in a program attempting to understand and integrate the effects of alcohol at four levels of biological organization: 1) membrane and subcellular, 2) cellular, 3) tissue and organ, and 4) total organism. Within this context, biochemical and physiological mechanisms that contribute to heritable vulnerability to alcohol problems and pari passu the effects of alcohol in exerting its toxic properties and realizing its addictive liability will be explored at the molecular level. The Conference will present, in addition, cells maintained in vitro and animal genetic studies as model systems for delineating these issues and present new methodologies for potential application to alcoholism research.
