Tobacco Regulation and Addiction Center (A-TRAC)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as part of an on-going interagency partnership, funded 14 Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science (TCORS) in 2013 to conduct research to inform regulation of tobacco products. After a successful five-year program, they funded nine new Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science (TCORS 2.0) in 2018, committing more than $151 million in grants. to research centers, some of which were also part of the previous network.

The American Heart Association Tobacco Regulation and Addiction Center (A-TRAC) received new funding as part of this initiative and partnered with eight institutions to form the American Heart Association Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science, bringing together investigators from across the country to aid in the development and evaluation of tobacco product regulations. TCORS sites were expected use the full spectrum of basic and applied sciences on tobacco and addiction to generate research to inform and assess the FDA’s existing, upcoming and future regulatory initiatives. The program also provided young investigators with training and seed funding to ensure the development of the next generation of tobacco regulatory scientists. The program was designed with the flexibility to provide answers to emerging research questions in a continually shifting tobacco marketplace.

The goal of the American Heart Association Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science was to provide the FDA with scientific evidence regarding the cardiovascular toxicity and health effects of tobacco products and their components, with a larger focus on new and emerging tobacco products. The Center supported a multi-disciplinary research program to assess toxicity in human tissue and animal models; evaluate short- and long-term cardiovascular health effects of tobacco products, and assess the cardiovascular disease risk associated with non-cigarette tobacco products in multiple large NIH-supported cardiovascular cohorts.