Dr. Abraham Palmer gave a plenary talk for The Society for Neuroscience, Oregon and Southwest Washington Chapter Meeting, in Portland, Oregon on Friday, April 13th. His talk was titled, “The surprising role of the enzyme Glyoxalase 1 and its substrate methylglyoxal in anxiety, depression and alcohol consumption.”
Drs. Abraham Palmer and Amelie Baud presented their research on psychiatric genetics to approximately 40 high school students on Friday April 6th at UCSD. Many of the students are taking AP Psychology or AP Economics courses. They were visiting the UCSD campus from Sweetwater High School in National City, CA.
Dr. Abraham Palmer was the keynote speaker at the Waggoner Center for Alcohol & Addiction Research at the University of Texas at Austin on Friday, March 23rd, 2018. His talk was titled “Behavioral genetic studies of alcoholism and alcohol related traits using mice, rats, and humans.”
The article, “Glyoxalase (GLO1) inhibition or genetic overexpression does not alter ethanol’s locomotor effects: implications for GLO1 as a therapeutic target in alcohol use disorders,” was written by Amanda Barkley-Levenson and accepted for publication in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. Dr. Abraham Palmer is a co-author on the paper.
Congratulations, Amanda!
A new U01 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) was awarded to Olivier George from TSRI. Dr. Palmer is a co-investigator on this project, which will use HS rats to perform a GWAS for extended access to oxycodone. The grant (U01DA044451-01A1) titled “Use of Next-Gen Sequencing to Identify Genetic Variants that Influence Compulsive Oxycodone Intake in Outbred Rats” will start on April 1, 2018 and will end January 31, 2023.
The article, “Inhibition of Glyoxalase 1 reduces alcohol self-administration in dependent and nondependent rats,” is in press and will be published in Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior. Dr. Abraham Palmer & Dr. Amanda Barkley-Levenson are co-authors and other authors include Giordano de Guglielmo, Dana Conlisk, and Olivier George.
A recent article by Wency Leung at The Globe and Mail discusses why loneliness is so bad for the human body. The article is titled “Why is loneliness so toxic? Scientists are exploring what it does to the human body,” and highlights Dr. Palmer’s recent research on the genetics of loneliness.
The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation presented the Palmer Lab with honors for one of the Top Advancements & Breakthroughs by Foundation Grantees in 2017. This list illustrates some of the major research achievements by BBRF grantees over the past year.
For the past 30 years, Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Grants have funded the most innovative ideas in neuroscience and psychiatry.
This past year, BBRF funded more than $19 million divided between approximately 400 Young Investigator Grantees, approximately 80 Independent Investigator Grantees, and 15 Distinguished Investigator Grantees who are expected to
The article, “Genome-wide association study of delay discounting in 23,217 adult research participants of European ancestry” written by Dr. Sandra Sanchez-Roige, was published in Nature Neuroscience.
The recently published article has garnered significant attention in various news and social media outlets. Altmetric.com ranked the article in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric. It was also featured by Newsweek with an article on 12/12/17. 23andMe interviewed Dr. Abraham Palmer on the 23andMeBlog. The article was also featured on Genética Médica.
Congratulations, Sandra!
Drs. Amanda Barkley-Levenson and Sandra Sanchez-Roige each attended the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology 2017 meeting in Palm Springs, CA. The meeting took place December 3-7, 2017. Dr. Sanchez-Roige presented a poster titled ‘Using Genome-Wide Association Studies to Explore the Role of Impulsivity in Psychiatric Diseases.’ Dr. Barkley-Levenson presented a poster titled ‘Use of intracranial self-stimulation as a screen for novel preclinical therapeutics for alcohol use disorders.’
