After a decade of perpetual Chicago winter, the Palmer Lab is moving to sunny California!

Dr. Palmer will join the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California – San Diego on January 1, 2016.

The Palmer Lab will be moving to UCSD’s brand-new Biomedical Research Facility II. Check out some nice visuals and more information about its construction here and here!

Alex Gileta received a F31 Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award from the NIH & NIDA for his project, titled “GWAS for the attribution of incentive salience in outbred rats”.

The NIH & NIDA award these fellowships to provide predoctoral individuals with supervised research training in specified health and health-related areas leading toward the research degree.

Congratulations, Alex!

The first Rat Genetics and Genomics for Psychiatric Disorders and Addiction workshop was held on Monday June 29th in the Ida Noyes Hall at the University of Chicago. Speakers from all over the world came to discuss recent advances in rat genetics and genomics as well as the genetics of substance abuse and addiction. See the full schedule here!

Dr. Abraham Palmer presented a talk titled “Center for GWAS in outbred rats: current activities and opportunities for future collaborations”. Three Palmer Lab members (current graduate students Katherine McMurray & Alex Gileta,

The Palmer Lab had a big showing at the Rat Genetics and Genomics for Psychiatric Disorders and Addiction workshop on June 29th: Katherine McMurray, Alex Gileta, and Yu-yu Ren presented their work and all won “Best Poster” awards. Congratulations, you three!

The Complex Trait Consortium’s 14th annual meeting was held in Portland, Oregon from June 8-11.

Alex Gileta, Natalia Gonzales, Abraham Palmer, and several other past or future Palmer lab members attended.

The Department of Human Genetics at the University of Chicago has promoted Dr. Abraham Palmer to full Professor, effective July 1, 2015. Dr. Marcelo Nobrego was also promoted to full Professor and Dr. Daniela del Gaudio was promoted to Associate Professor. Congratulations, everyone!

Their Research and Education (REP) Responsive proposal, “Genetic Mapping and Gene Identification in Acute Kidney Injury Using Outbred Rats”, has been funded by the Medical College of Wisconsin Board of Trustees in the amount of $200,000 over two years, beginning July 1, 2015. The Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin (AHW) Endowment funds research awards in which MCW physicians and scientists work to improve the health of the people of Wisconsin through scientific advances. In this proposal, Dr. Solberg-Woods’ lab will phenotype HS rats for kidney injury & Dr. Palmer’s lab will

Dr. Palmer delivered the keynote lecture at the 1st Finnish Symposium of Biological Psychiatry on the University of Helsinki campus on May 18th. His talk was titled “Using quantitative genetic techniques to elucidate molecular mechanisms of behavior”.

The NIDA National Center for GWAS in Outbred Rats was highlighted in the University of Chicago Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience’s Spring 2015 newsletter. Dr. Palmer is the Principal Director of this multi-site effort to refine understanding of the genetic basis of drug abuse and addiction. Read the full newsletter here! More information about the NIDA Center is available here.

The cover story of Medicine on the Midway’s Spring 2015 issue focuses on how different University of Chicago neuroscientists are employing innovative and powerful approaches in their research. Dr. Palmer is one of four faculty members featured in this article, where he discusses his collaboration with Dr. John Cacioppo about the genetics of loneliness, upcoming partnership with personal genetics company 23andme, previous work identifying novel molecular mechanisms related to anxiety and other behaviors, and more. Read the full article here!