David Crabb MD

Dr. David Crabb is a medical doctor who has been engaged in alcoholism and liver research since the early 1980s. His work has focused on studying the effects of ethanol on intermediary metabolism in the liver and adipose tissue using cultured cells, as well as in vivo animal and human models.

As Director of the Indiana Alcohol Research Center, Dr. Crabb has played a key role in studies on the genetics of alcoholism, the epidemiology of alcohol use disorders, and human and animal responses to alcohol. The Center has been continuously funded for more than three decades.

Dr. Crabb’s expertise in hepatology, along with his extensive research on the pathogenesis of alcoholic liver injury and clinical care of patients with alcoholism, led to his leadership in organizing a multi-center consortium funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). This consortium studies the natural history and treatment of alcoholic hepatitis and investigates the mechanisms underlying severe liver injury in humans.

Additionally, Dr. Crabb has been instrumental in implementing system-wide screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) for hazardous alcohol use across the Eskenazi Health system.