Category Archive for : ‘Palmer Lab News’

Dr Abraham Palmer, Dr. Sandra Sanchez-Roige and Palmer lab member Elizabeth Alcantara attended the 45th Annual Research Society on Alcoholism conference in Orlando, Florida on June 25-29, 2022.

Dr. Abraham Palmer presented a talk titled, “Genetic Relationship Between Impulsivity and Heavy Drinking”. He also served as a discussant for another integrated symposium.

Dr. Sandra Sanchez-Roige presented a talk titled, “Genetic Liability to Alcohol Use and Misuse Correlates with Biomedical Conditions”. She also won the RSA Early Career Investigator Award.

Elizabeth Alcantara presented a poster titled, “Investigating the Role of Glyoxalase 1 as a

Dr. Sandra Sanchez-Roige has been promoted to Associate Adjunct Professor. The appointment will begin on 7/1/2022.

Congratulations, Sandra!

Dr. Abraham Palmer and Dr. Oksana Polesskaya attended the 23rd Annual Genes, Brain and Behavior meeting at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, May 23-27th, 2022.

Dr. Palmer gave a talk titled “Overview of the NIDA center for genetic studies of drug abuse in outbred rats”, at the Genetic studies of drug addiction-related traits in outbred rats symposium, which was chaired by Dr. Polesskaya.

See details here!

Karina Cerda joined the Palmer Lab in April 2022 as a Laboratory Assistant. She finished her Master’s degree in Molecular Ecology and Biotechnology at Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC) in Mexico. Her main research interests involves population genetics and using molecular tools. She is very committed to multidisciplinary projects. She is involved in varying fields from  Government legislation to sample genotyping. Out of the lab, Karina likes to practice martial arts, outdoor activities, and pole dances.

Welcome, Karina!

Shae Ziegler joined the Palmer Lab in February 2022 as an information systems analyst. She graduated from UCSD in 2021 with a B.S. in Cognitive Science with specialization in Machine Learning and Neural Computation as well as a minor in Business. In her free time she enjoys playing lacrosse, hanging out with dogs, and playing video games.

Welcome, Shae!

Palmer and Dulawa Lab members gathered to celebrate the holidays and Amanda’s new job as an Assistant Professor in New Mexico! Happy Holidays!

Dr. Amanda Barkley-Levenson has accepted a position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center and will be starting in 2022. Her lab will work on understanding the genetic basis of alcohol use disorder and excessive drinking by translating novel hits from human GWAS into mouse models for comprehensive follow-up and validation.

Congratulations, Amanda!

Gabe Barrero joined the Palmer lab in November 2021 as an information system analyst with a Bachelor of arts in Biology. He is passionate about data science and its application in international development. In his free time Gabe enjoys Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai, biking, cooking and ice cream.

Welcome, Gabe!

The article, “Evaluation of Delay Discounting as a Transdiagnostic Research Domain Criteria Indicator in 1388 General Community Adults” has been accepted for publication in Psychological Medicine. Drs. Abraham Palmer and Sandra Sanchez-Roige are co-authors along with several others. Congratulations!

Final citation: Levitt, E. E., Oshri, A., Amlung, M., Ray, L.A., Sanchez-Roige, S., Palmer, A.A., & MacKillop, J. (in press) Evaluation of Delay Discounting as a Transdiagnostic Research Domain Criteria Indicator in 1388 General Community Adults. Psychological Medicine.

The article, “Polygenic transcriptome risk scores (PTRS) can improve portability of polygenic risk scores across ancestries”, has recently been accepted for publication in Genome Biology. This study explores the use of polygenic transcriptome risk scores (PTRS) to improve the prediction of transcriptomic data in underrepresented populations. Dr. Abraham Palmer and several others coauthored this article. See the article here. Congratulations, Dr. Palmer!