Midcareer investigator award in patient-oriented research in the area of perinatal-developmental neuroscience

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Despite evidence that 1 in 5 children are at risk for psychiatric disorders, only 1 in 20 young children receive mental health care. Thus, a high number of children who would benefit from mental health care remain untreated. My long-term goal is to improve brain-based targets for early detection and behavioral interventions of childhood psychiatric disorders. The area of perinatal-developmental neuroscience (PDN) is of high public health significance as a substantial proportion of pregnant women will experience health, environmental, or psychological stressors, which have early and long-lasting effects on offspring. Increasing the number of research programs that can support training in PDN is paramount. The K24 will allow me to: 1) expand my expertise in advanced analytic methods to support trainee research, and 2) establish an internationally recognized research and training program focused on fetal-infant brain and behavioral origins of mental health. My K24 training program, the Columbia Engagement, Stability, and Success in PDN will provide an individualized approach to research training: assessing the research skills and career goals of mentees early on and developing personalized training modules; didactics; experiential, hands-on training; and research productivity that follow their individualized plan. The program also includes a monthly seminar series alternating between science and career-networking topics. Our prior studies suggest there may be common biological pathways by which early exposures exert their influence on offspring conferring psychiatric risk – with recent attention to the immune system and/or hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and brain regions involved in behavioral regulation. Using the expanded analytic skills obtained through this K24, my mentees and I will conduct studies to examine whether four key prenatal exposures: maternal depression, body mass index, infection, and blood glucose are associated with connectivity and morphology of brain regions (e.g., dorsal anterior cingulate) involved in behavioral regulation. In a subset of the cohort, we will also consider the potential mediating effects of inflammation and glucocorticosteriods. I have a unique opportunity to pool data from cohorts of pregnant women-fetal dyads involved in research studies (2004 to present; n~500) at Columbia University Irving Medical Center – a large center with a diverse patient population – and perform new data collection harnessing health information technology (e.g., electronic medical records). The data set will serve as a platform for my mentees to produce pilot projects and manuscripts, and practical experience conducting a project in an area of PDN that matches his/her career goals within the scope of this funding mechanism. My strong commitment to and ongoing research in patient-oriented research focused on identifying early antecedents of psychiatric risk, individualized mentorship plans, direct involvement of mentees in the conduct of research, and tailored career development program at Columbia University Irving Medical Center are strengths of this application. The K24 mentees will be uniquely positioned to discover neurobiological and behavioral pathways associated with risk.