The manuscript , “Genome-wide association study of problematic opioid prescription use in 132,113 23andMe research participants of European ancestry”, has been provisionally accepted for publication in Molecular Psychiatry. Dr. Sandra Sanchez-Roige and Dr. Abraham Palmer are co-authors along with Mariela Jennings, Sevim Bianchi, and Yuye Huang. This study identified two genome wide significant loci associated with problematic opioid use (POU). Additional genetic correlations along with POU were found including alcohol dependence, smoking initiation and many more.

The 2021 Complex Trait Consortium (CTC) meeting was held virtually from Manchester, UK from September 1-3, 2021.

Abraham Palmer, Oksana Polesskaya,  Daniel Munro, Brittany Leger, Milad Mortazavi, Apurva Chitre, Joel Leal-Gutierrez, and Denghui Chen has attended.

Dr. Abraham Palmer has received a $200,000  supplement for the project titled, “Making data from the center for GWAS in out bred rats FAIR and AI/ML ready”.  NIDA has provided these funds to improve the AI/ML (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning)-readiness of data from the Center for GWAS outbred rats. Additionally, these funds will be used to address important shortcomings in the processing of several large datasets and be used to implement new methods of effective information sharing.

The recently published article, “Multivariate analysis of 1.5 million people identifies genetic associations with traits related to self-regulation and addiction“, has been fully published on Nature Neuroscience. This study integrates a multivariate approach which uses summary statistics from GWAS data to identify genetic variants associated to externalizing phenotypes. UCSD Health has highlighted this study in its recent press release.

Dr. Palmer is a co-investigator on an NIH/HIDCD grant received by Dr. Rick Friendman, entitled “The genetics of functional decline in the aging vestibular system: A GWAS and gene expression analysis in aging mice and humans.” This project seeks to identify and study the genetic basis of age-related hearing impairment.

Clara Ortez joined the Palmer Lab in August of 2021, she recently graduated from UC San Diego with a B.S. in Cognitive Science specialization Neuroscience, during which she interned at the George Lab studying behavioral components of drug use. She’s from the Bay Area but loves San Diego weather and beaches, where you can find her reading a good book!

This program provides a rich training environment which includes several activities allowing for interaction among faculty and other students. Furthermore, fiscal support is provided from their NIGMS training grant.

Congrats, Brittany!

Dr. Polesskaya presented a poster titled “High-throughput genotyping of zebrafish enables GWAS in outbred EKW population” at the 16th International Zebrafish Conference (IZFC).  Coauthors from the Palmer lab includes Dr. Riyan Cheng, Apurva Chitre, Bonnie Lin, Khai-Minh Nguyen, and Dr. Abraham Palmer. This poster presents a cost-effective and high-throughput genotyping method that the Palmer lab has developed in support of a GWAS in zebrafish in order to study the genetic underpinning of complex traits related to anxiety behavior. This method is applied to genotyping large quantities of zebrafish which enables

The article, “Functional validation of a finding from a mouse genome-wide association study demonstrates that Azi2 influences the acute locomotor simulant response to methamphetamine”, has been accepted for publication in Genes, Brain, and Behavior. This article discusses the potential mechanisms of Azi2 and its role in methamphetamine sensitivity. Dr. Abraham Palmer, Dr. Amanda Barkley-Levenson, Xinzhu Zhou and several others co-authored this article. Congratulations!

Zeljana grew up in continental Serbia, Europe. She lived in Dubai and London, before she moved to the States for school. Mesmerized by all things brain-related, she first double majored in Neuroscience and Psychology, and then received her Master’s degree in Neurobiology – all at UC San Diego. In her spare time, she is a travel junkie, a student pilot, an avid watcher of Grey’s Anatomy, and the main resource for her kindergartener’s incessant questioning of the Universe.

Welcome, Zeljana!