LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences are working to develop medicines that counter alcohol’s toxic effects in an effort to create new treatments for alcoholism, the medical school announced Wednesday.

The school said it was awarded three federal grants worth $3.1 million to advance its work on the potential treatments to prevent brain cells from damage from alcohol.

Two professors in the Department of Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences of the College of Medicine, Cynthia J.M. Kane and Paul D. Drew, have been pursuing the...