New Center in Columbia to Research Alcohol, Drug Disorders

A new center to study alcohol abuse opened in Columbia recently.

The University of Maryland cut the ribbon Sept. 12 at Columbia’s Clinical Neurobehavioral Center, which will conduct clinical trials in collaboration with researchers from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

George Koob, Ph.D., director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, spoke at the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Waterloo Road.

Operating under the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry, the Clinical Neurobehavioral Center will work to treat those with alcohol disorders and deepen the understanding of alcoholism and drug addiction.

The center will conduct “the pinnacle of neurobehavioral research and work to develop medications and treatments for alcohol and drug addiction and prevention,” according to Dr. E. Albert Reece, dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine and vice president of medical affairs for the University of Maryland.

The Clinical Neurobehavioral Center is located at 5900 Waterloo Road in Columbia.

Credit: Submitted photos. Cutting the ribbon at the Clinical Neurobehavioral Center are Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism George F. Koob, Ph.D., and University of Maryland School of Medicine Dr. E. Albert Reece, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A. Meanwhile, Chairman of the University of Maryland’s Department of Psychiatry Bankole A. Johnson, M.D., looks on; Johnson will be directing the Clinical Neurobehavioral Center.