Dr. Palmer visited 23andMe on February 20, 2019, and gave a talk titled “Genetic approaches to understanding the biological basis of behavior”.

Dr. Palmer is a co-Investigator on the newly awarded R01 titled “Genetic Modulators of Glaucoma”. The PI is Dr. Monika Jablonski (Department of Ophthalmology in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center). The grant will be funded by the National Eye Institute to study glaucoma-related traits in HS rats. Dr. Jablonski has been collaborating with NIDA center on a GWAS in outbred rats led by Dr. Palmer. This grant will fund the phenotyping of eyes obtained from the NIDA center. Phenotypes obtained by Dr. Jablonski will

The article, “Electronic health records are the next frontier for the genetics of substance use disorders,” has been accepted for publication in Trends in Genetics. Dr. Sandra Sanchez-Roige and Dr. Abraham Palmer are co-authors.

Dr. Palmer has been interviewed by “Good Morning San Diego” about a new GWAS for risk tolerance.

“Being willing to take risks is essential to success in the modern world,” said study co-author Abraham Palmer, PhD, professor of psychiatry and vice chair for basic research at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “But we also know that taking too many risks, or not giving enough weight to the consequences of risky decisions, confers vulnerability to smoking, alcoholism and other forms of drug addiction.” The full interview can be found here.

The article, “Incentive salience attribution, ‘sensation-seeking’ and ‘novelty-seeking’ are independent traits in a large sample of male and female heterogeneous stock rats,” has been accepted for publication in Scientific Reports. Dr. Abraham Palmer is a co-author along with Alesa Hughson, Aidan Horvath, Katie Holl, Leah C. Solberg Woods, Terry Robinson, and Shelly Flagel.

Dr. Palmer gave a talk at IROC section (International Rat Omics Consortium).  The talk was focused on accomplishments of the  NIDA center for GWAS in outbred rats (P50DA037844, “Integrated GWAS of complex behavioral and gene expression traits in outbred rats”) over the past four and a half years. Dr. Palmer also presented a poster highlighting goals and results of the P50 Center.

Dr. Sanchez-Roige gave a talk titled “Alcohol consumption vs. misuse: evidence for distinct genetic architecture”.

The article, “A Metal-Binding Pharmacophore Library Yields the Discovery of a Glyoxalase 1 Inhibitor,” has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Dr. Abraham Palmer and Dr. Amanda Barkley-Levinson are co-authors along with Christian Perez, Benjamin Dick, Peter Glatt, Yadira Martinez, Dionicio Siegel, Jeremiah Momper, and Seth Cohen. Congratulations, Amanda!

The article, “Genome-wide association studies of impulsive personality traits (BIS-11 and UPPSP) and drug experimentation in up to 22,861 adult research participants identify loci in the CACNA1I and CADM2 genes,” has been accepted for publication in The Journal of Neuroscience. Dr. Sandra Sanchez-Roige and Dr. Abraham Palmer are co-authors along with Pierre Fontanillas, Sarah Elson, Joshua Gray, Harriet de Wit, and James Mackillop.

This manuscripts has been discussed in multiple reports, including:

UCSD Health News article
23&Me research blog,
Genetica Medica portal (Spanish),
Scientific American (Arabic)

Palmer lab members gathered to celebrate the holidays and Alex Gileta’s graduation before Alex moves back to Chicago. Thanks to all those who celebrated with us!

Dr. Sandra Sanchez-Roige was awarded the Harry June Award. This special award is given to early career researchers in substance abuse and was established in honor of ACNP Member, Harry June, Ph.D. and is funded by the National Institute for Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse. Dr. June was a renowned research scientist in the field of substance abuse and was a devoted mentor to students and young faculty.  Dr. Sandra Sanchez-Roige was acknowledged for this special award by Dr. Steve Hyman during the President’s Plenary Session: From Genetics to the Neurobiology