The manuscript, “Genome-wide association study on three behaviors tested in an open field in heterogeneous stock rats identifies multiple loci implicated in psychiatric disorders”, was accepted for publication in Frontiers Psychiatry, section Addictive Disorders. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) of behaviors measured in an open field was conducted in HS rats. 30 genome wide significant quantitative trait loci and 13 candidate genes were identified for these traits. Not only did this study identify genes that were implicated by human GWAS of psychiatry traits, but also observes several novel findings. Current

The article, “Polymorphic SNPs, short tandem repeats and structural variants are responsible for differential gene expression across C57BL/6 and C57BL/10 substrains”, has been accepted for publication in Cell Genomics. This article compares the widely used C57BL/6J inbred mouse strain with closely related C57BL/6 and C57BL/10 sub strains. Whole genome sequencing and RNA-sequencing analysis of these strains yielded several thousand SNPs, INDELs, short tandem repeats (STRs), structural variants and differentially expressed genes. Milad Mortazavi, Dr. Abraham Palmer and several others coauthored this article. See the article here. Congratulations!

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!

The article, “Genes identified in rodent studies of alcohol intake are enriched for heritability of human substance use”, has been accepted for publication in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. This article discusses the use of GeneWeaver to enrich rodent alcohol & nicotine gene-sets for heritability of substance use traits in humans. Dr. Abraham Palmer and several others coauthored this article. See article here. Congratulations!

The 7th Annual Retreat for the NIDA Center for GWAS in Outbred Rats was held on 11/4/2021. Investigators from the P50 Center, as well as PIs of the grants affiliated with the Center, gave short talks about their projects, followed by discussion. A closed advisory board meeting was held the following day.

Master’s Student Elizabeth Alcantara was recently awarded the BrightSpinnaker Fellowship. This fellowship is awarded to students who demonstrate a commitment to community service and provides funding for the master’s program at UCSD.

Congratulations, Liz!