Armed with $9.3 million in federal grant funds over five years, UC Irvine scientists will investigate why people take up smoking and why they cannot quit.
The bulk of the research in Orange County is part of a federal project that will focus on why teens and young adults begin to light up. UCI scientists will observe 100 local high school and college students to find out what behaviors and moods contribute to daily decisions to smoke.
UCI is one of seven universities around the nation participating in the $70-million research effort by the National Institutes of Health, with each team investigating a different aspect of tobacco use and nicotine addiction.
Unlocking the secrets behind adolescent smoking is at the heart of the effort to break the nation's tobacco habit, said researchers, in part because more than 90% or adult smokers first try cigarettes before graduating from high school.
"The majority of adults have started to smoke before they are 18," said Frances Leslie, professor of pharmacology at UCI's College of Medicine. "We are interested in what factors make children smoke. Most try cigarettes at some point but only 20% become addicted and we want to know why."
Another goal of the grants is to create a core of new tobacco research centers nationwide. In addition, work at the centers will be done across a wide range of academic disciplines to better understand how people get hooked on tobacco products, federal officials said.
For instance, at UCI the College of Medicine and the School of Social Ecology will be involved in the research. Among other projects, the social scientists will analyze how factors such as age and gender influence smoking habits, and the biological scientists will examine how nicotine alters hormones, neural communication and chemicals in the brain to create addiction, among other things.
"Tobacco use and nicotine addiction are such complex subjects that it will take a truly [cross-disciplinary] approach to understand the addiction and how to prevent tobacco use, particularly by teens and younger children," said Allan I. Leshner of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which along with the National Cancer Institute is providing the funding. Both are part of NIH.
One key issue for researchers is to find out why it is easier for addicted adults to stop smoking than for adolescents, and why teens take up smoking at a much greater rate than adults.
