COGA's asset is its family‐based longitudinal design that supports an intensive clinical, behavioral, genetic, genomic and brain function data collection. As the project enters its late third decade of scientific exploration, we approach our contributions to the study of AUD with optimism. At the core of COGA's scientific mission is our expectation that through the systematic characterization of the clinical, genetic, environmental and brain‐related factors that contribute to alcohol use and misuse, we can begin to identify mechanisms that will eventually truncate the course of AUD, if not substantially deter its onset altogether. Our science aims to identify pathways to enduring remission and processes that can be modified to minimize the deleterious impact of AUD across the lifespan. Through our collaborative gene‐brain‐behavior paradigm, we aspire to address both the causes and consequences of heavy alcohol use and AUD, which still contributes annually to 3 million preventable deaths globally.
