"It's a new era," said Frank Vocci, director of the medications development division of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "It's starting to go far beyond nicotine."

The therapies spring directly from research using today's highest technologies, including brain scans of smokers and genetically engineered mice that resist addiction.

"These things were science fiction 20 years ago," said Neil Grunberg, a nicotine researcher and professor of clinical psychology and neuroscience at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. "Now, the research is opening huge new vistas for treatment."