Yale University Establishing New Research Center to Help Women Quit Smoking

Yale University is establishing a new research center with the goal of finding new methods to help women quit smoking. The center is funded by a five-year, $6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

The principal investigator on the project is Sherry McKee, an associate professor of psychiatry at Yale. Dr. McKee states, “Women smokers face greater health consequences including higher risk for lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. So there is a real need to develop treatments that are sensitive to gender differences in tobacco dependence.”

Carolyn M. Mazure, professor of psychiatry at Yale, will be the scientific director of the new center. Marina Picciotto, the Charles B. G. Murphy Professor of Psychiatry, Neurobiology and Pharmacology, and Kelly Cosgrove, assistant professor of psychiatry and diagnostic radiology, will lead pivotal studies within the center.