The Convergence and Divergence of Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder

描述(由申请人提供)：这项K奖将通过提供临床精神病理学、神经生物学、生物标记物和功能结果方面的额外培训来促进候选人的职业发展，以补充她在实验室、分子遗传学方法和统计遗传学方面的研究生教育。因此，在获奖期结束时，格林伍德博士将处于独特的地位，能够将她新获得的技能应用于翻译神经科学中的重要问题，在翻译神经科学中，临床、模式生物和基因组问题之间存在广泛的相互作用，需要通过跨学科的“融合神经生物学”方法来解决，这种方法将把临床信息与尖端神经科学和基因组方法相结合。为了实现这一综合目标，格林伍德博士将参加有关临床、神经生物学、流行病学和统计学问题的课程和实践。她还将在加州大学圣迭戈分校布拉夫博士的精神分裂症研究计划和凯尔索博士的躁郁症计划的背景下接受结构化诊断患者面谈(如SCID、DIGS/FICS)方面的培训，以向她提供关于这些疾病的临床表现的实用知识。加州大学圣迭戈分校为翻译神经科学提供了一个极好的环境，与她杰出的导师和合作者一起，将为格林伍德博士提供进行培训和代表性研究项目所需的科学背景。格林伍德博士的代表性研究项目将解决一个具有挑战性的问题：从基因组和神经生物学的角度量化和解释精神分裂症(SZ)和双相情感障碍(BD)的“重叠”。她将利用她与Braff和Kelsoe博士在他们由NIMH资助的关于SZ和BD的大型财团研究中已经熟悉的大量现有数据库。她的两位导师是这些项目的首席研究员，拥有丰富的基因组和临床数据库，这一事实为格林伍德博士提供了一个独特的机会，可以研究SZ和BD患者的遗传变异和神经生物学途径的趋同和分歧。从长远来看，她将应用她新获得的技能，对这两种疾病的临床、生物标记物和功能结果趋同和分歧的额外遗传决定因素进行详细分析。 公共卫生相关性：精神分裂症和双相情感障碍等精神疾病表现出遗传和临床的复杂性，并显示出很大程度的重叠。确定这些衰弱疾病的神经生物学基础将需要一种跨学科的“融合神经生物学”方法，这种方法将把临床信息与尖端的神经科学和基因组方法结合起来。在她现有的分子生物学和统计遗传学知识的基础上，通过临床精神病理学、神经生物学、生物标记物和功能结果方面的培训，应聘者将在不久的将来处于解决这些重要问题的独特地位。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This K Award will facilitate the career development of the candidate by providing additional training in clinical psychopathology, neurobiology, biomarkers, and functional outcome to complement her graduate and post-graduate education in laboratory-based, molecular genetic methodologies and statistical genetics. At the end of the award period, Dr. Greenwood will thus be uniquely positioned to apply her newly acquired skills to important questions in translational neuroscience where there is an extensive interaction of clinical, model organism, and genomic questions that need to be addressed via an interdisciplinary "convergent neurobiological" approach, which will integrate clinical information with cutting edge neuroscience and genomic methods. In order to achieve this integrative goal, Dr. Greenwood will take courses and practicums addressing clinical, neurobiological, epidemiological, and statistical issues. She will also receive training in structured diagnostic patient interviewing (e.g. SCID, DIGS/FIGS) in the context of Dr. Braff's Schizophrenia Research Program and Dr. Kelsoe's Bipolar Program at UCSD to provide her with practical knowledge regarding the clinical manifestations of these disorders. UCSD provides an excellent environment for translational neuroscience, which, along with her distinguished mentors and collaborators, will provide Dr. Greenwood with the requisite scientific context in which both training and the representative research project will be conducted. Dr. Greenwood's representative research project will tackle a challenging problem: quantifying and interpreting the "overlap" of schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) from genomic and neurobiological standpoints. She will utilize extensive existing databases with which she is already familiar via her collaborations with Drs. Braff and Kelsoe in their large NIMH-funded consortium studies on SZ and BD. The fact that her two mentors are the lead investigators of these projects with their rich genomic and clinical databases gives Dr. Greenwood a unique opportunity to examine the convergence and divergence of genetic variation and neurobiological pathways in SZ and BD patients. In the longer term she will apply her newly acquired skills to do a detailed analysis of additional genetic determinants of clinical, biomarker, and functional outcome convergence and divergence in these two disorders. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, exhibit genetic and clinical complexity and show a large degree of overlap. Defining the neurobiological bases of these debilitating disorders will require an interdisciplinary "convergent neurobiological" approach that will integrate clinical information with cutting edge neuroscience and genomic methods. Building on her existing knowledge of molecular biology and statistical genetics with training in clinical psychopathology, neurobiology, biomarkers, and functional outcomes, the candidate will be in a unique position to tackle these important questions in the near future.