Fralin Biomedical Research Institute appoints interim directors for research centers focused on addiction recovery and health behaviors
The team of four will continue to advance the extensive work underway at the Addiction Recovery Research Center and Center for Health Behaviors Research.
Four researchers with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC stepped into interim roles this month to continue the work of two research centers with an extensive record of advancing human health.
Stephen LaConte and Kirstin Gatchalian will serve as interim co-directors of the Addiction Recovery Research Center, while Alexandra DiFeliceantonio and Jeff Stein will serve as interim co-directors of the Center for Health Behaviors Research.
They succeed Warren Bickel, who died in September. Bickel was a founding faculty member at the research institute and the inaugural director of both research centers, having led both programs to national and global prominence.
In the coming year, the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute will initiate a search for more permanent leadership, said Michael Friedlander, executive director of the research institute and Virginia Tech’s vice president for health sciences and technology.
“After the tragic loss of Warren Bickel, we are extremely grateful for his vision and incredible body of work as well as for the outstanding research teams he assembled who will guide these programs going forward,” Friedlander said. “We are fortunate that we have the talent and dedication among our faculty and staff to help with this transition and ensure program continuity.”
LaConte, a professor at the research institute, runs a lab focused on advanced neuroimaging and data analysis aimed and improving basic understanding of normal brain function and dysfunction in disorders including addiction. The LaConte lab pioneered an innovation in functional magnetic resonance imaging called “temporally adaptive brain state.” He holds a number of active research grants with the National Institutes of Health and collaborated with Bickel and other investigators at FBRI and across Virginia Tech on projects ranging from the repair of self-control in alcohol dependence to neurorehabilitation for infants with cerebral palsy to brain injury diagnosis and monitoring.
LaConte, who also holds an appointment in biomedical engineering and mechanics with the College of Engineering, earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Denver and a doctoral degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Minnesota.
Gatchalian worked with Bickel before he joined Virginia Tech and is the longtime manager of his research programs in addiction and health behaviors. She has been pivotal in the success of the International Quit & Recovery Registry, an innovation of the Addiction Recovery Research Center, and in implementation of multi-institution projects that examine novel interventions for alcohol and cocaine use disorders, smoking, obesity, and prediabetes.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Kalamazoo College in Michigan.
DiFeliceantonio and Stein previously served as co-associate directors of the Center for Health Behaviors Research. They both also hold appointments in Virginia Tech’s Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
DiFeliceantonio is an assistant professor at the institute who uses brain imaging, metabolic measures, and other techniques to study food choice, eating behavior, and addiction. She has a number of NIH-funded research grants focused on ultra-processed foods and their influence on the brain.
DiFeliceantonio earned her doctorate in biopsychology from the University of Michigan. She joined the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute in 2019.
Stein joined the institute as a postdoctoral research associate under Bickel in 2014 and became an assistant professor in 2019. His research includes reducing lung cancer through tobacco cessation treatment trials, funded through the Red Gates Foundation, and an NIH-funded study applying episodic future thinking to improve management of type 2 diabetes.
Stein earned a master’s degree in behavioral psychology from the University of Kansas and a doctorate from Utah State.
The Addiction Recovery Research Center, one of the institute’s first focus areas, conducts research at the intersection of behavioral study and neuroscience to target the impaired decision-making processes of people with addictive behaviors. It is home to such research innovations as the International Quit & Recovery Registry and the Experimental Tobacco Marketplace.
The Center for Health Behaviors Research helps prevent and treat lifestyle-related diseases through research including obesity and diabetes. It focuses on three styles of research: neurobiology and decision-making sciences; molecular and clinical metabolic sciences; and implementation, dissemination, and health policy sciences.
