CSR&D Research Career Scientist Award Application

摘要 HagHighi博士的研究专长是医学表观遗传学及其在创伤性脑损伤(TBI)中的应用， 抑郁和自杀行为。这些表观遗传学研究涉及基因是如何差异转录的 并在人类临床和死后大脑样本中进行调控，提供了潜在的快照 与疾病神经病理学相关的转录调控异常。HagHighi博士的临床研究 展示环境暴露如何影响表观基因组。具体地说，在她关于创伤脑的研究中 ，她研究了对反复爆炸暴露的反应如何诱导长期转录调控 导致睡眠障碍、焦虑、认知缺陷、抑郁和创伤后应激障碍等症状的变化。 此外，她还研究了压力，特别是慢性压力是如何引起表观遗传变化的。 与退伍军人中的抑郁和自杀有关。

SUMMARY Dr. Haghighi's research specialty is in medical epigenetics with applications to traumatic brain Injury (TBI), depression, and suicidal behavior. These epigenetic studies involve how genes are differentially transcribed and regulated, within human clinical and postmortem brain samples, providing a snapshot of potential transcriptional regulatory abnormalities associated with disease neuropathology. Dr. Haghighi's clinical studies show how environmental exposure affects the epigenome. Specifically, in her studies involving traumatic brain injury, she investigates how response to repeated blast-exposure induces long-term transcriptional regulatory changes resulting in symptoms of sleep disturbances, anxiety, cognitive deficits and depression and PTSD. Additionally, she investigates how the role of stress, specifically chronic stress, induces epigenetic changes associated with depression and suicide in the Veteran population.