Falk Lohoff, M.D.

Lasker Clinical Research Scholar

Section on Clinical Genomics and Experimental Therapeutics

NIAAA

Building 10, Room 2-2352
10 Center Drive
Bethesda, MD 20892

301-827-1542

falk.lohoff@nih.gov

Research Topics

Our section conducts pre-clinical studies and translational clinical studies with focus on genomics and epigenetics related to the pathophysiology and treatment of alcohol use disorders and addictions. The pre-clinical work focuses on identifying molecular mechanisms involved in addictions, utilizing a wide array of methods including human population genetics, genome wide genotyping approaches, next-generation DNA and RNA sequencing and epigenetic/proteomic profiling. Findings are translated into human clinical studies using molecular biomarker, pharmacogenetic, epigenetic and functional imaging genetic approaches. Clinical studies include early phase 1 / phase 2 proof-of-concept studies of experimental novel therapeutics guided by molecular biomarker profiling.

Biography

Dr. Falk Lohoff serves as the Chief of the Section on Clinical Genomics and Experimental Therapeutics (CGET). He received his medical degree from Humboldt University of Berlin in 2002, and completed residency training in psychiatry and a fellowship in neuropsychopharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is board certified in Psychiatry since 2007. He was Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania from 2007-2014, after which he joined the NIH intramural program as a Lasker Clinical Research Scholar. Dr. Lohoff has worked on clinical trials in mood and anxiety disorders and has also been involved in direct patient care as the attending at the University of Pennsylvania. His research is focused on translational medicine and spans areas of molecular genetics, epigenetics, imaging-genetics, pharmacogenetics and clinical experimental trials.

Selected Publications

  1. Lohoff FW, Sorcher JL, Rosen AD, Mauro KL, Fanelli RR, Momenan R, Hodgkinson CA, Vendruscolo LF, Koob GF, Schwandt M, George DT, Jones IS, Holmes A, Zhou Z, Xu MJ, Gao B, Sun H, Phillips MJ, Muench C, Kaminsky ZA. Methylomic profiling and replication implicates deregulation of PCSK9 in alcohol use disorder. Mol Psychiatry. 2018;23(9):1900-1910.
  2. Lee JS, Mukhopadhyay P, Matyas C, Trojnar E, Paloczi J, Yang YR, Blank BA, Savage C, Sorokin AV, Mehta NN, Vendruscolo JCM, Koob GF, Vendruscolo LF, Pacher P, Lohoff FW. PCSK9 inhibition as a novel therapeutic target for alcoholic liver disease. Sci Rep. 2019;9(1):17167.
  3. Lohoff FW, Roy A, Jung J, Longley M, Rosoff DB, Luo A, O'Connell E, Sorcher JL, Sun H, Schwandt M, Hodgkinson CA, Goldman D, Momenan R, McIntosh AM, Adams MJ, Walker RM, Evans KL, Porteous D, Smith AK, Lee J, Muench C, Charlet K, Clarke TK, Kaminsky ZA. Epigenome-wide association study and multi-tissue replication of individuals with alcohol use disorder: evidence for abnormal glucocorticoid signaling pathway gene regulation. Mol Psychiatry. 2020.
  4. Rosoff DB, Clarke TK, Adams MJ, McIntosh AM, Davey Smith G, Jung J, Lohoff FW. Educational attainment impacts drinking behaviors and risk for alcohol dependence: results from a two-sample Mendelian randomization study with ~780,000 participants. Mol Psychiatry. 2021;26(4):1119-1132.

Related Scientific Focus Areas

This page was last updated on Thursday, September 9, 2021