Nii Addy
Yale University, CT·Pharmacology
Flavors in tobacco products make people more likely to start using them and harder to quit. But e-cigarettes and smokeless tobacco also contain odorless additives, such as sweeteners and synthetic cooling agents, that may not count as "characterizing flavors" under current FDA definitions and could remain even if flavors are banned.
- Fields
Pharmacology
Neuroscience
Public Health & Epidemiology
- Topics
nicotine
tobacco regulatory science
e-cigarettes
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2028
What they work on
- Test whether sweeteners, synthetic cooling agents and propylene glycol/glycerol solvents change oral and airway sensory responses to tobacco-derived and synthetic nicotine stereoisomers, using taste reactivity and respiratory exposure assays in adolescent and adult rodents.
- Measure how synthetic cooling agents affect nicotine initiation, maintenance, withdrawal and reinstatement, and nicotine-induced dopamine release in the brain's reward system.
- Use operant vapor self-administration, where rodents work to receive nicotine vapor, to study interacting effects of cooling agents, solvent ratios and nicotine enantiomers on use.
- Determine whether intermittent adolescent exposure to sweeteners and coolants in vapor or oral nicotine alters adult nicotine seeking, dependence and dopamine release, comparing sexes, using passive exposure and choice drinking models.
More about the research
Solvents (mixtures of propylene glycol and glycerol) and newly introduced synthetic nicotine may also change how products feel and how people use them. Little is known about how these ingredients affect use, especially the shift from occasional teen use to persistent adult use. This project studies these odorless constituents in rodents.
Why it matters
The findings could give the FDA evidence on how odorless additives, solvents and synthetic nicotine change nicotine's appeal and addictiveness, informing tobacco product regulation. This could help protect adolescents from progressing from occasional nicotine use to lasting adult dependence.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Alex Carll
University of Louisville, KY·Pharmacology
Identify how inhaling flavored, nicotine-containing e-cigarette aerosols acutely changes the heart's electrical activity in mice, including QT prolongation, heart rate and arrhythmias, measured by electrocardiogram.
Meghan Morean
Yale University, CT·Public Health & Epidemiology
Refine an ENDS nicotine concentration label so its strength categories are anchored to cigarette nicotine content, using expert feedback and focus groups.
Michael Kotlyar
University of Minnesota, MN·Public Health & Epidemiology
Test whether people who smoke menthol cigarettes take up nicotine pouches more than medicinal nicotine, using a randomized 6-week study of 252 participants in an experimental marketplace.
The school
Yale University: 73 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 438 research doctorates a year.
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