Mentorship in Biobehavioral Mechanisms of Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder

项目总结/摘要 申请人Jennifer J.托马斯博士，是饮食失调临床和研究的联合主任 马萨诸塞州总医院的项目和哈佛医学院的精神病学副教授。 在过去的十年里，托马斯博士的研究集中在喂养和 进食障碍，特别是新认识的回避/限制性食物摄入障碍（ARFID）。她 成功的指导经验，出版记录和目前的资金证明了她的承诺， 对以患者为导向的研究的热情，并为实现目标和目的提供良好的基础 关于K24奖托马斯博士的职业发展目标将使她能够（1）加深她的专业知识 在多模式神经成像技术（整合结构，功能和扩散MRI），以提高她的 多学科合作和提供翻译指导的能力;（2）创建可持续的 为不同学者的持续研究指导提供基础设施，以发展他们自己独特的专业知识， ARFID将延伸到她的实验室和K24时期之外;（3）将她的两条生产线结合在一起， 研究（ARFID的行为治疗和ARFID的神经生物学），以开发新的治疗方法， 使用先进的临床试验设计靶向神经机制。拟议的奖项将使托马斯博士能够 将她的努力重新分配到30%的指导，60%的研究和10%的病人护理。托马斯博士将进一步确定 一个以病人为导向的研究计划，使用创新的多学科技术来调查 神经生物学基础回避和限制性饮食，并提供了一个理想的环境，发展未来 跨学科临床研究的领导者。培训环境在教学方面非常出色 评估跨学科终点的资源和技术的可用性。重要的是，托马斯博士有一个 来自心理学和精神病学领导层的坚定承诺，以及多学科合作者的骨干 和高级顾问，他们热情地支持她的研究计划，指导和K24建议。 该应用程序的具体研究目标是基于最近资助的R 01调查之间的联系 激素、脑功能和临床特征。主持下的重要新方向 该奖项的一部分将以多模式神经成像为特色，包括大脑结构（灰质体积）评估 和白色物质连通性）及其与脑功能异常和临床特征的关系。在 从长远来看，这个K24奖将建立下一代学者的能力，以推进研究， 进食障碍的生物行为机制。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The applicant, Jennifer J. Thomas, Ph.D., is the Co-Director of the Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Over the last decade Dr. Thomas’s research has focused on the pathophysiology and treatment of feeding and eating disorders, particularly the newly recognized avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID). Her successful mentoring experience, publication record, and current funding demonstrate her commitment and passion for patient-oriented research and provide an excellent foundation to accomplish the goals and objectives of the proposed K24 Award. Dr. Thomas’s career development goals will enable her to (1) deepen her expertise in multimodal neuroimaging techniques (integrating structural, functional, and diffusion MRI) to enhance her multidisciplinary collaborations and ability to provide translational mentorship; (2) create a sustainable infrastructure for continued research mentorship of diverse scholars to develop their own unique expertise within ARFID that will extend beyond her laboratory and beyond the K24 period; and (3) bring together her two lines of research (on behavioral treatment of ARFID and neurobiology of ARFID) to develop new treatments that modify target neural mechanisms using advanced clinical trial designs. The proposed award will enable Dr. Thomas to redistribute her effort to 30% mentorship; 60% research; and 10% patient care. Dr. Thomas will further establish a patient-oriented research program that uses innovative multidisciplinary techniques to investigate the neurobiology underlying avoidant and restrictive eating, and that provides an ideal environment to develop future leaders in clinical research across disciplines. The training environment is outstanding in terms of didactic resources and availability of techniques to assess cross-disciplinary endpoints. Importantly, Dr. Thomas has a strong commitment from Psychology and Psychiatry leadership, and a cadre of multidisciplinary collaborators and senior advisors, who have enthusiastically endorsed her research program, mentoring, and K24 proposal. The specific research aims of the application are based on a recently funded R01 investigating the link between hormones, brain function and clinical features in adults with ARFID. Important new directions under the auspices of this award will feature multimodal neuroimaging, including assessment of brain structure (gray matter volume and white matter connectivity) and its relationship with functional brain abnormalities and clinical features. In the long-term, this K24 award will build capacity in the next generation of scholars to advance research in biobehavioral mechanisms of feeding and eating disorders.