GeneGo has been awarded a National Institute on Drug Abuse grant to develop a research platform for the causes and treatment of nicotine addiction.

The grant will be used to develop a database and systems biology toolset, designed specifically for the study of pathways involved in nicotine addition and withdrawal, studying mutations in human genes.

GeneGo director of toxicology Richard Brennan said that a holistic understanding of the biological pathways involved in the pharmacological and addictive effects of nicotine is needed to better understand and treat causes of addiction.

“This project will gather existing knowledge and data to reconstruct these pathways, and make them more accessible to researchers and clinicians,” he said.