Tobacco Research at MUSC

Matthew J. Carpenter, Ph.D., is the Flora McLeod Edwards Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research and a clinical psychologist with strong research expertise in behavioral science, particularly addictive behaviors and smoking cessation. In his associate director role, he provides strategic direction, research leadership, and program development to advance behavioral, epidemiologic, and population science across the cancer continuum, with an emphasis on cancer prevention, early detection, health disparities, survivorship, and implementation science.

The Innovation Sciences Unit is led by Dr. Jennifer Dahne, an Associate Professor within the Addiction Sciences Division of the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Dahne is an academic entrepreneur who has received five small business grants from various NIH institutes (NIMH, NIDA, NCATS, NIMHD) totaling more than $3M. Dr. Dahne has co-founded two faculty-led spinout companies, both of which are in the digital health space. Dr. Dahne has led the development, evaluation, and commercialization of five commercially available digital health products to date. These products have been evaluated via rigorous randomized clinical trials which have accrued more than 1,000 patients. In addition to entrepreneurial ventures, Dr. Dahne directs a research laboratory within the Addiction Sciences Division that has received numerous traditional NIH grant awards including R01, R21, and K23 funding. Dr. Dahne is passionate about translating academic innovations into products that can be widely disseminated and commercialized in order to improve public health.

Program Director

Dr. Erin A. McClure is a behavioral psychologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. McClure earned her B.S. in Psychology and Neuroscience from Allegheny College and her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Florida. The overarching goal of Dr. McClure’s program of research is broadly focused on reducing the harmful impact of cannabis and tobacco/nicotine product use across the lifespan. Her research has focused on refining and evaluating strategies to improve long-term abstinence and prevent relapse, as well as pursuing harm reduction strategies to minimize the adverse impact of substance use; all utilizing technology to improve remote procedures and data quality, as well as to increase reach and accessibility.

Research Interests: Dr. Rojewski is a psychologist with a focus on cancer control. Her research interests include tobacco treatment interventions for populations with medical comorbidities and implementing tobacco treatment interventions in the health care system.

Academic Focus: nicotine and tobacco use, tobacco control, e-cigarettes, tobacco product regulation.

The goal of Dr. Smith’s research is to reduce the harms associated with smoking, with a focus on regulatory science. One arm of her research has focused on tobacco regulations that can reduce the appeal and addictiveness of combustible tobacco — the most harmful form of tobacco. This includes a decade of research related to reducing the nicotine level within cigarettes to minimally addictive levels, and new research investigating the impact of banning menthol within cigarettes. Another arm of Dr. Smith’s research focuses on the impact of non-combustible tobacco products on public health, including both their potential to serve as harm reduction tools for current smokers and their potential to increase harm for youth and non-smokers who initiate tobacco use with these products. Dr. Smith is currently conducting several trials that test the impact of e-cigarettes on smoking behavior and smoking abstinence among current smokers. Dr. Smith is passionate about mentoring and works with trainees at a variety of levels, including high school students, undergraduates, graduate students, psychology interns, and postdoctoral fellows.

Benjamin Toll, Ph.D., a professor of public health sciences and psychiatry at MUSC, specializes in the treatment of tobacco use disorders and improvement of health behaviors. As associate director, his goal is to provide well-structured and effective education and training opportunities for pre- and post-doctoral students and junior faculty at Hollings Cancer Center.

Executive Council

The overarching goal of Dr. Tomko's research is to improve treatment outcomes for individuals with substance use disorders by understanding individual differences in substance use disorder presentation and identifying which treatments are optimal for a specific individual.