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Randall delivers Mark Keller Honorary Lecture Carrie Randall, Ph.D., one of the pioneers in the study of alcohol consumption and its effects on pregnant women, was honored recently by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her contributions in the alcohol field.   Dr. Carrie Randall She delivered the Mark Keller Honorary Lecture at Masur Auditorium on the NIH campus, the first non-clinician to do so in the lecture’s five-year existence. Her presentation was entitled, “Alcohol and Pregnancy: Highlights From Three Decades of Research.”    “This is probably one of the top two or three honors in the field of alcohol research,” said Layton McCurdy, M.D., dean of the College of Medicine and vice president of medical affairs.   It also was an honor, McCurdy said, for which Randall was eminently qualified.   “She's a pioneer in neonatal defects as they relate to alcohol use in pregnant women,” he said. “She's a leader in the alcohol clinical research field. She has provided leadership to this institution and made MUSC one of the leading four or five institutions nationally in alcohol research.”   The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism established the Mark Keller Honorary Lecture Series in 1996 as a tribute to his contributions to this field of research. He began his career in alcohol-related research and teaching in the mid-1930s at the New York University School of Medicine. Later, at Yale University, Keller helped found the first Center of Alcohol Studies. In 1962, the center moved to Rutgers University and became the most complete alcohol research reference collection in the field. He was named professor emeritus at Rutgers and also taught at Brandeis University. For nearly 50 years, Keller served as editor, and later editor emeritus, of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol.    Randall, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and director of MUSC's Alcohol Research Center, said she was honored to receive the award. She was a graduate student at Rutgers University where she knew Keller personally. Until the early 1970s, alcohol’s effects on pregnant women were largely unknown. Then the first clinical reports emerged linking alcohol with birth defects. Those findings were not readily accepted, however, Randall said.   “Before 1973, no one believed alcohol was causing the defects,” she said. “The alcoholic mothers used other drugs, had poor health, poor nutrition, poor prenatal care, so a number of other factors could be blamed. In fact, alcohol was used clinically to prevent premature labor.”    Using animal models, Randall demonstrated that alcohol was indeed a teratogen, an agent which caused birth defects.    Randall, who joined the MUSC faculty in 1976, has devoted most of her academic career to studying Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and is widely acclaimed as an expert in the field. She also is an active researcher in the alcohol treatment arena. Among her other honors are the Betty Ford Award for her work in the area of substance abuse, the Henry Rosett Award for her work on FAS and the Distinguished Research Award presented by the Research Society on Alcoholism for her numerous contributions to alcohol research.   Despite the progress that has been made in the study of FAS, Randall said there is much more to be done.    “We need a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in FAS,” she said, “and to start looking at the effect of combinations of drugs. In the real world, pregnant alcoholics use more than just alcohol.”