The manuscript, “Clinical, Environmental, and Genetic Risk Factors for Substance Use Disorders: Characterizing Combined Effects across Multiple Cohorts”, has been provisionally accepted for publication in Molecular Psychiatry. This article investigates the ability to identify individuals at higher risk for substance use disorders across four cohorts using models that include clinical/environmental risk index (CERI) and polygenic scores (PGS).  Dr. Abraham Palmer is a co-author along with several others. See preprint here!

Haoyu Jia joined the Palmer lab in August 2022 as an information system analyst. He received a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from UC San Diego with a specialization in Intelligent Systems, Robotics, and Controls. His research interests involve applications of machine learning and data science in medical data, particularly with genomics and microbiomics. In his free time Haoyu enjoys video games, motorsports, and cosplay.

Welcome, Haoyu!

Heng Xu began his rotation in the Palmer Lab in August 2022 as a student for the BISB program. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a M.A. in Applied Mathematics and Computational Science. In his spare time, he enjoys rock climbing, biking, and spending time with his two cats.

Welcome, Heng!

The grant, “Computational methods for allele-specific expression quantification”, was awarded to Dr. Seyoung Kim and Dr. Abraham Palmer. This grant is supported by the Carnegie Mellon University/National Science Foundation.

The major goals of this grant are to develop computational methodology to quantify allele-specific expression from RNA-seq and genotype data to apply to intercross mouse data.

Congratulations!

Michelle Doyle joined the Palmer Lab in July 2022 at a postdoctoral scholar. She received her PhD in neuroscience from UT Health San Antonio where she studied substance use disorder-like phenotypes in rats self-administering stimulants. Michelle will be working on a joint project between Dr. Palmer and Dr. Giordano de Guglielmo studying behavioral genetics of alcohol use disorder in HS rats. In her free time, Michelle enjoys baking and is looking forward to spending time outside, especially at the zoo, with her family.

Welcome, Michelle!

Dr Abraham Palmer, Dr. Sandra Sanchez-Roige and Palmer lab member Elizabeth Alcantara attended the 45th Annual Research Society on Alcoholism conference in Orlando, Florida on June 25-29, 2022.

Dr. Abraham Palmer presented a talk titled, “Genetic Relationship Between Impulsivity and Heavy Drinking”. He also served as a discussant for another integrated symposium.

Dr. Sandra Sanchez-Roige presented a talk titled, “Genetic Liability to Alcohol Use and Misuse Correlates with Biomedical Conditions”. She also won the RSA Early Career Investigator Award.

Elizabeth Alcantara presented a poster titled, “Investigating the Role of Glyoxalase 1 as a

Dr. Abraham Palmer was a speaker at the 2022 Annual Behavioral Genetics Association (BGA) Meeting in Los Angeles.  He presented a talk titled “Methods for transferring polygenic signals between species” on June 25th, 2022. See details here.

The manuscript, “Cross-ancestry genomic research: time to close the gap”, has been accepted for publication in Neuropsychopharmacology. Dr. Abraham Palmer and Dr. Sandra Sanchez-Roige are authors along with several others.

Congrats!

Dr. Sandra Sanchez-Roige has been promoted to Associate Adjunct Professor. The appointment will begin on 7/1/2022.

Congratulations, Sandra!

Dr. Abraham Palmer and Dr. Oksana Polesskaya attended the 23rd Annual Genes, Brain and Behavior meeting at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, May 23-27th, 2022.

Dr. Palmer gave a talk titled “Overview of the NIDA center for genetic studies of drug abuse in outbred rats”, at the Genetic studies of drug addiction-related traits in outbred rats symposium, which was chaired by Dr. Polesskaya.

See details here!