Ken Blum
Encyclopedia
Neuropsychopharmacology
Neuropsychopharmacology is an interdisciplinary science related to psychopharmacology and fundamental neuroscience...
and genetics. He is often referred to as the co-discoverer of the alcoholism gene due to his study publication in the Journal of the American Medical Association
Journal of the American Medical Association
The Journal of the American Medical Association is a weekly, peer-reviewed, medical journal, published by the American Medical Association. Beginning in July 2011, the editor in chief will be Howard C. Bauchner, vice chairman of pediatrics at Boston University’s School of Medicine, replacing ...
in 1990. He is an academician and researcher in the fields of neuropsychiatry and genetics, nutritional genetics, and pharmacogenetics. Blum's research has been recognized worldwide through numerous awards, scientific publications in the leading peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals in the world, and in academic circles.
Blum is currently an Adjunct Full Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, The University of Florida, College of Medicine and Mcknight Brain Institute, Gainesville, Florida and formerly of the Department of Physiology & Pharmacology at Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University is a private, coeducational university in the U.S. state of North Carolina, founded in 1834. The university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina, the state capital. The Reynolda Campus, the university's main campus, is...
School Of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Until 2008 he was also Chief Scientific Officer of Salugen, Inc., a personalized health and wellness company in San Diego, California. In 1995 he retired as a full Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, The University of Texas where he was also Chief of the Division of Addictive Diseases, Chief of the Division of Substance and Alcohol Misuse, and Director of the Laboratory of Pharmacogenetics at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, in San Antonio, Texas. Currently he is the Chairman of the Board and Chief Scientific Officer of LifeGen Inc San Diego CA a neutrigenomic evidence based corporation.
Academic background
Blum received his B.S. in Pharmacy from Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in 1961, his M.S. in Medical Science in 1965 from the New Jersey College of Medicine, and his Ph.D. in Pharmacology in 1968 from the New York Medical College
New York Medical College
New York Medical College, aka New York Med or NYMC, is a private graduate health sciences university based in Westchester County, New York, a suburb of New York City and a part of the New York Metropolitan Area...
. Blum completed post-doctorate research in psychopharmacology from the Southwest Foundation for Research and Education where Irving Geller was his mentor. He also completed a fellowship in pharmacogenetics under Gerald McClearn at the University of Colorado
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
College of Pharmacy in Boulder in 1977.
Genetic research on addictions
Blum's most important work currently appears to be a 1990 study he co-led with Dr. Ernest Noble, the former director of the NIH's National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and researcher from UCLA, that correlated the Dopamine D2 Receptor Taq 1 allele with alcoholism. This study was published in the Journal of the American Medical AssociationJournal of the American Medical Association
The Journal of the American Medical Association is a weekly, peer-reviewed, medical journal, published by the American Medical Association. Beginning in July 2011, the editor in chief will be Howard C. Bauchner, vice chairman of pediatrics at Boston University’s School of Medicine, replacing ...
. Blum expanded his research of genes involved in brain reward circuitry. By the early 1980s there were many suggestions that alcoholism had genetic antecedents and a very high hereditability rate. This research stimulated further studies of gene associations. Though the press has called his finding the "alcoholic gene," Blum believed his work to be of broader scope, calling this gene a "reward gene" which covers other addictive behaviors including drug addiction, smoking, overeating, and pathological gambling.