and other candidate molecules will provide insight into the risk for AD. Unfortunately, the extant body of animal and human research on alcohol has also demonstrated that alcohol, as a drug, is not specific in its effects, but rather casts a wide net in the human brain. Consequently, susceptibility to AD likely involves a network of genes across several biological systems. This has complicated the elucidation of the genetic mechanisms that drive compulsive drinking, AD, and specific AD characteristics. In the proceeding pages, we highlight the positive and negative findings from molecular genetic studies of AD and the need for analytical and interpretational approaches in the form of Systems Genetics. Systems Genetics has the potential to organize our neurological, pharmacological, and genetic understanding of AD into a biologically plausible framework that represents how perturbations across evolutionarily robust biological systems determine susceptibility to AD.
