Research description
My research is primarily focused on tobacco/nicotine, including the evaluation of novel products (such as electronic cigarettes), tobacco use among individuals with behavioral health disorders, and other areas, such as e-cigarette use among pregnant women. Much of my work also addresses issues of nicotine/tobacco dependence and abuse liability, and puff topography is an outcome measure in many of my published studies. I am currently funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as Co-PI (with Dr. Thomas Eissenberg at VCU) on VCU's Center for the Study of Tobacco Products, and as Project Director for Project 2 ("Using User Behavior Collected in the Clinical Laboratory to Test Hypotheses about Advanced-Generation ECIGs and Generate Population-Level Predictions Regarding Potential Regulatory Action"). The goal of Project 2 is are to use established clinical laboratory methods to examine, in independent studies each involving exclusive ECIG users and non-ECIG using smokers, the extent to which subjective effects, puff topography, liquid consumption and nicotine delivery are influenced by three potential regulatory actions.