Congratulations to Yu-yu for unofficially breaking a world record in weight lifting!

Check out the article about him here!

Dr. Kayla Chase has finished her postdoc in the Palmer lab and has accepted a position as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in Chicago, IL. The Palmer Lab will miss her and wishes her the best of luck!

The article, “Identification of a novel, fast-acting GABAergic antidepressant“, by McMurray et al. (Mol. Psychiatry, 2017) has been recommended in F1000Prime as being of special significance in its field. Dr. Guy Griebel wrote a review of the article, which can be read in full here.

F1000Prime is a curated collection of top articles recommended by the Faculty of 1000 as being significant and impactful to the fields of biology and medicine. Articles from over 3,700 peer-reviewed journals are highlighted. Learn more about F1000Prime and its features here!

The Palmer Lab attended the Complex Trait Community. Meeting in collaboration with the Rat Genomics Community in Memphis, TN June 13-17, 2017. Alex Gileta won the Outstanding Presentation award for his talk: ‘Genome-wide association study for the propensity to attribute incentive salience to reward cues in outbred rats.’ Nice job, Alex!

Dr. Yu-yu Ren also presented: ‘A multi-omics approach to elucidating the genomic heterogeneity among C57BL/6 mouse substrains.’ Dr. Abraham Palmer presented: ‘Status update on the NIDA center for GWAS in outbred rats; progress, resources and opportunities.’

Abraham Palmer was featured in the La Jolla Light newspaper last week, along with his daughter and prized ’77 VW van. Check out the story behind the van and its cross country adventures.

The article, “Impulsivity as a Link between Childhood Adversity and Drug Abuse,” was accepted for publication in Development and Psychopathology. Authors include Dr. Abraham Palmer as well as collaborators Assaf Oshri, J.A. Kwon, K.A.S. Wickrama, Steven M. Kogan, L. VanderBroek, and James MacKillop.

Friday, May 26th was Celine’s last day in the Palmer lab. She will start her PhD in Human & Statistical Genetics at Washington University in St. Louis this fall. Good luck & congratulations, Celine!

Dr. Abraham Palmer was recently interviewed by Dr. David Granet on UCSD-TV. They discussed how inhibiting the Glyoxalase 1 (GLO1) enzyme can reduce signs of depression.

The program was titled “A Faster Antidepressant: The Molecular and Cellular Possibilities with Abraham Palmer – Health Matters” Watch now!

This program and other videos are available online on UCSD-TV’s web site at www.ucsd.tv.

Dr. Yu-yu Ren was selected to receive a T32 Fellowship in Biopsychiatry and Neuroscience. The fellowship is a 2-year program that is aimed at training physicians and psychologist in conducting research towards the understanding of the biological underpinnings of mental disorders. Yu-yu’s research will focus on identifying novel gene targets that influence anxiety and depression using a panel of near-isogenic mice. Congratulations, Yu-yu!

Drs. Amanda Barkley-Levenson and Sandra Sanchez-Roige have each received a Young Investigator Travel Award to attend the Genes, Brain and Behavior 2017 meeting of the International Behavioral and Neural Genetics Society (IBANGS) in Madrid, Spain. The meeting took place May 15-18, 2017. Dr. Sanchez-Roige presented a Featured Talk titled ‘The genetics of delay discounting.’ Dr. Barkley-Levenson presented a poster titled ‘Glyoxalase 1 involvement in alcohol drinking and alcohol-motivated behaviors.’