# Yale Center for the Study of Tobacco Product Use and Addiction (YCSTP)

> **NIH NIH U54** · YALE UNIVERSITY · 2023 · $3,999,726

## Abstract

OVERALL - ABSTRACT
The US Food and Drug Administration has the authority to regulate tobacco products to protect public health.
Regulatory measures that address constituents that contribute to the appeal and addiction of tobacco products
are critically needed. The FDA has proposed plans to regulate nicotine concentration in cigarettes and flavors in
many tobacco products and needs rigorous scientific evidence to support these plans and defend legal
challenges. Currently, important gaps remain in our understanding of how nicotine and flavor additives influence
the appeal of and addiction to tobacco products and how these constituents might influence initiation and support
harm reduction. Moreover, recent “disruptive innovations” directed at nicotine and flavor additives and introduced
by the tobacco industry, have led to new unknowns. To address these gaps in knowledge, the Yale Center
for the Study of Tobacco Products (YCSTP) brings together a multidisciplinary team to investigate the
effects of different forms and concentrations of nicotine (tobacco-derived, synthetic, freebase/salt),
constituents that add cooling (menthol, odorless synthetic coolants), and constituents that add
sweetness (humectants, sweeteners) delivered via different routes and products (oral, inhaled,
intravenous) on initiation, addiction and harm reduction. Project 1 (Jordt/Addy) will examine if odorless
cooling flavors, sweeteners, humectants, and different nicotine stereoisomers impact initiation, nicotine
preference, reinforcement, and transitions in use form adolescence to adulthood. Project 2 (Sofuoglu) will
determine if thresholds for nicotine reinforcement, discrimination, and subjective reward are altered by nicotine
dependence and exposure to sweeteners. Project 3 (Krishnan-Sarin) will examine if odorless synthetic coolants
and synthetic nicotine racemic mixtures alter the appeal and addiction potential of nicotine-containing e-
cigarettes. Project 4 (Fucito/Bold) will examine the impact of potential regulations of flavors and nicotine
concentration in non-combustible tobacco products (nicotine pouches, e-cigarettes) on switching from
combustible tobacco products. The YCSTP will be supported by a Measurement and Analytics Core
(Morean/Gueorguieva) that will provide and develop psychometrically sound measures and rigorous statistical
analyses, a Laboratory Core (Eid/Zimmerman) that will provide chemical analyses of new and existing tobacco
products and biological estimates of tobacco/nicotine exposure and health/toxicity biomarkers, a Career
Enhancement Core (O’Malley/Kong) that will train fellows and junior faculty in tobacco regulatory science and
provide pilot funding, and an Administrative Core (Krishnan-Sarin/O’Malley) that will ensure the generation of
rigorous science through scientific, regulatory, and community oversight as well as facilitate intra- and inter-
TCORS communications and collaborations. We will build on the methods and findings from our prior ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10666234
- **Project number:** 2U54DA036151-11
- **Recipient organization:** YALE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** SUCHITRA KRISHNAN-SARIN
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $3,999,726
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2013-09-30 → 2028-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10666234

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10666234, Yale Center for the Study of Tobacco Product Use and Addiction (YCSTP) (2U54DA036151-11). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10666234. Licensed CC0.

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