Dr. Palmer presented at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Center of Excellence in the Omics, Systems Genetics and the Addictome (OSGA) Webinar Series. His talk, “From GWAS to gene: What are the essential analyses and how do we bring them together using heterogeneous stock rats?”, describes the tools to analyze GWAS in HS rats and the automated pipeline that performs GWAS in HS rats. Furthermore, this talk explains the role of fine mapping of associated regions and the use of secondary analyses to prioritize genes in associated intervals.

The article, “Item-level genome-wide association study of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test in three population-based cohorts”, has been accepted for publication in The American Journal of Psychiatry. Drs. Abraham Palmer and Sandra Sanchez Roige are co-authors on the paper.

The article, “Genetic and pharmacological manipulations of glyoxalase 1 mediate ethanol withdrawal seizure susceptibility in mice”, has been accepted for publication in Brain Sciences. Drs. Abraham Palmer and Amanda Barkley-Levenson are co-authors on the paper.

The article, “Sensitivity to food and cocaine cues are independent traits in a large sample of heterogeneous stock rats”, has been accepted for publication in Scientific Reports. Apurva Chitre and Drs. Oksana Polesskaya and Abraham Palmer are co-authors on the paper.

Congratulations, Amanda!

The Palmer lab wishes everyone a safe and happy holiday season. The lab will be (mostly) closed December 24, 2020 to January 1, 2021. Here’s to a better new year!

Dr. Abraham Palmer has been named a Fellow (i.e., senior or honorary member) in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for his contributions to psychiatry. Congratulations, Abe!

Dr. Amelie Baud, a former Palmer lab postdoc, will start a Research Group Leader position at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona, Spain in September 2021. Her lab will work on indirect genetic effects (genetic effects arising from heritable traits of social partners, when those traits influence the phenotype of interest) and host-microbiome interactions. She will keep collaborating with Dr. Palmer and the NIDA P50 Consortium. Congratulations, Amelie!

Katarina Cohen joined the Palmer Lab in October 2020 as a laboratory assistant. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Biology. She is interested in the medicinal application of biochemistry and hopes to pursue research in the future. She enjoys drawing and watching Westerns. Welcome, Katarina!

The article, “Modeling epistasis in mice and yeast using the proportion of two or more distinct genetic backgrounds: evidence for ‘polygenic epistasis'”, has been accepted for publication in PLOS Genetics. Former Palmer lab member, Natalia Gonzales, and current lab member, Dr. Palmer, are co-authors on the paper. The full citation is as follows:

Rau CD, Gonzales NM, Bloom JS, Park D, Ayroles J, Palmer AA, Lusis AJ, Zaitlen N. Modeling epistasis in mice and yeast using the proportion of two or more distinct genetic backgrounds: evidence for “polygenic epistasis”. PLoS Genetics, in press.