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

A new R01 grant from the National Eye Institute was awarded to Drs. Monica Jablonski, Abraham Palmer, and several others. The grant is titled, “Genetic Modulators of Glaucoma.”

Dr. Monica Jablonski (Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Tennessee) received the grant to study glaucoma-related traits in HS rats. Dr. Jablonski has been collaborating with the P50 Center, and this grant will fund phenotyping of eye samples and GWAS for glaucoma-related traits.

The article, “Social and anxiety-like behaviors contribute to nicotine self-administration in adolescent outbred rats,” was accepted for publication in Scientific Reports. Apurva Chitre, Dr. Oksana Polesskaya, and Dr. Abraham Palmer are co-authors along with several others.

Drs. Abraham Palmer and Sandra Sanchez-Roige were recently interviewed on “Spit,” an iHeartRadio podcast with 23andMe. They spoke, along with Nikki Sixx and Dr. Adi Jaffe, about their research on genetics and addiction.

The article, “Genome wide association analysis in a mouse advanced intercross line,” has been accepted for publication in Nature Communications. The article was written by Dr. Natalia Gonzales, Dr. Abraham Palmer, and other co-authors.

Read the article here! Congratulations, Natalia!

The Palmer lab recently attended the Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego on November 3-7th.

Apurva Chitre presented a poster titled, “Genetic analysis of multiple measures of locomotor activity in 2,325 outbred Heterogeneous Stock rats.”

The article, “Genome-wide association analyses of risk tolerance and risky behaviors in over one million individuals identify hundreds of loci and shared genetic influences,” was accepted for publication in Nature Genetics. Sandra Sanchez-Roige and Abraham Palmer are co-authors along with several others.