The paper titled “Genome-wide association study identifies novel locus for neuroticism and shows polygenic association with Major Depressive Disorder” has been accepted for publication at JAMA Psychiatry.

The de Wit/Palmer group contributed one of 29 datasets, resulting in a total sample size of over 63,000 humans. Previously-published work using this consortium’s data found no loci that were unambiguously significant genome wide, but this recent analysis has pinpointed a new locus for neurotic personality traits and has further elucidated its complex association to Major Depressive Disorder.

Natalia Gonzales has won an award to attend both the Seminar and Conference portions of the Quantitative Genetics and Genomics meeting of the 2015 Gordon Research Conference in Lucca (Barga), Italy. The USDA Animal Genetics conference award covers the costs of her travel and registration fees. Congratulations, Natalia!

Apurva Chitre has joined the Palmer Lab! She recently completed her M.S. in Bioinformatics at Johns Hopkins University. While there, she also worked as a data analyst and research coordinator for multiple large-scale studies investigating the genetic basis of various respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in humans. She brings her computational skills and experience with handling large sequencing data to the Palmer Lab. Welcome Apurva!

Dr. Oksana Polesskaya is the new Scientific Coordinator for the NIDA Center for GWAS in Outbred Rats! The Scientific Coordinator is a crucial part of the Administrative Core, which is based at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Polesskaya obtained her PhD from Lomonosov Moscow State University in Moscow, Russia, followed by a post-doc at George Mason University where she studied drug abuse in rats. She then moved to the field of HIV/AIDS and completed another post-doc at the University of Rochester and became a Research Assistant Professor. There, she worked on

Jungkyun Seo will join the Palmer Lab in January!

He recently completed his M.S. in Statistics at the University of Chicago. He also worked as a Research Assistant in Nancy Cox’s lab, where he analyzed large sets of genomic data for complex trait associations and discovered his interest in genetics. He now brings his excellent computational skills to the Palmer Lab to gain further experience while applying to graduate programs.

The 53rd annual meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) was held in Phoenix, AZ from December 7-11.

Dr. Palmer was promoted from Associate to Full Member and gave a talk; Natalia Gonzales, Clarissa Parker, and Camron Bryant presented posters.

April Williams has also accepted a post-doc position and will join the Palmer Lab in Spring 2015! She is currently finishing her PhD in Coleen Murphy’s lab at Princeton University. Her dissertation is titled “Transcriptional Profiling of Dissociated Adult Caenorhabditis elegans Tissues”.

Amanda Barkley-Levenson has accepted a post-doc position and will join the Palmer Lab in Spring 2015! She is currently finishing her PhD in John Crabbe’s lab at the Oregon Health & Sciences University. Her dissertation is titled “The role of neuropeptide Y in binge-like drinking in mice”.

A recent article by Francie Diep in Scientific American explores the National Institute of Health’s new initiative that encourages researchers to design sex-balanced experiments. Part of this policy includes additional funding opportunities that add more animals to existing studies, in order to balance the sexes. Dr. Palmer received one of these supplementary grants in June to double the number of mice being used and allow for statistically-strong sex-specific results. Read the full article here!

The University of Chicago’s student-run newspaper, The Chicago Maroon, recently highlighted Dr. Palmer’s work for the new NIDA National Center of Excellence for GWAS in Outbred Rats. The Center seeks to use rats to investigate the genetic basis of drug abuse and other related behaviors. You can read the full article here!