Bio-Behavioral Smoking Profiles in Mexican Origin Youth

我的长期目标是成为一名独立的生物行为流行病学家，设计、实施和分析联合收割机对影响癌症和其他健康结果的行为的遗传和非遗传影响。我的建议建立在我以前在社区心理学和定量方法方面的培训基础上，并概述了遗传学，流行病学和分析技术方面的进一步培训。我已经制定了一个全面的教育和指导计划，将在这些领域提供密集的指导。我的研究建立在正在进行的R 01（R 01 CA 105203 -01; Spitz PI）的基础上，该研究确定了休斯顿大都市地区1，300名墨西哥裔美国青年在试验香烟和尼古丁依赖时非遗传和遗传因素的相对影响。我将通过评估文化适应的行为方面，寻求感觉的倾向，参与体育活动，并通过完成DRD 2，DRD 4和多巴胺转运蛋白基因的额外基因分型，扩展和丰富来自父母资助的数据。我关注这些多态性是因为它们与感觉寻求、身体活动和吸烟行为有关。这些额外的数据将允许新的评估潜在的调节和/或介导的影响，文化适应和PA的实验与香烟和潜在的行为和遗传为基础的变化之间的关系，在感觉寻求。我还将研究烟碱胆碱能受体基因的作用，这些基因在其他人群中的尼古丁依赖中起重要作用，以证实墨西哥裔美国人的这种关系。在参加父母研究的青少年参与者中，我的具体目标是：1）评估文化适应的独立影响（语言和行为方面）和感觉寻求倾向对香烟实验和身体活动水平的影响; 2）确定文化适应或身体活动是否调节感觉寻求对香烟实验的影响;以及3）探索所选候选基因中的变异如何影响吸烟、体育活动或两者的实验。在这个K 07中收集的额外数据将使我能够专注于目前无法在亲本R 01中解决的问题，将导致新假设的产生，并将使多巴胺奖励途径中的基因变异的研究更加彻底。额外数据将添加到父R 01中收集的数据中，以开发心理社会、背景和遗传易感性的定量多变量风险评估模型，以识别高风险青少年亚组。这些研究结果将使我们能够在更长的时间内制定更有效、文化上适当的学校和社区干预措施，以促进更健康的生活方式。最近我被推荐晋升为助理教授。我相信，晋升和获得这项奖学金的净效应将启动我在癌症预防方面的职业生涯。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): My long-term goal is to become an established independent bio-behavioral epidemiologist and to design, implement and analyze studies that combine genetic and non-genetic influences on behaviors that effect cancer and other health outcomes. My proposal builds upon my previous training in community psychology and quantitative methods, and outlines further training in genetics, epidemiology and analytic techniques. I have developed a comprehensive education and mentoring plan that will provide intensive instruction in these areas. My research builds upon an ongoing R01 (R01 CA105203-01; Spitz PI) that determines the relative influences of non-genetic and genetic factors in experimenting with cigarettes and nicotine dependence in 1,300 Mexican-American youth in the Houston metropolitan area. I will extend and enrich the data from the parent grant by assessing behavioral aspects of acculturation, sensation-seeking tendencies, participation in physical activities, and by completing additional genotyping on DRD2, DRD4, and the dopamine transporter gene. I focus on these polymorphisms because they are associated with sensation seeking, physical activity and smoking behaviors. These additional data will permit novel assessments of the potential moderating and/or mediating influences that acculturation and PA have on the relationship between experimenting with cigarettes and underlying behavioral- and genetic-based variations in sensation seeking. I also will examine the role of nicotinic cholinergic receptor genes that have been identified to be important in nicotine dependence among other populations to confirm this relationship in Mexican Americans. Among the adolescent participants enrolled in the parent study, my specific aims are to: 1) assess the independent effects of acculturation (linguistic and behavioral aspects) and sensation-seeking tendencies on experimentation with cigarettes and level of physical activity; 2) determine if either acculturation or physical activity moderate the influence of sensation seeking on experimentation with cigarettes; and 3) explore how variants in selected candidate genes influence experimenting with cigarettes, physical activity, or both. The additional data collected in this K07 will enable me to focus on questions that can not currently be addressed in the parent R01, will lead to the generation of new hypotheses, and will enable a more thorough investigation of gene variants in the dopamine reward pathway. The additional data will be added to the data collected in the parent R01 to develop quantitative multivariate risk assessment models for psychosocial, contextual, and genetic susceptibility to identify high-risk adolescent subgroups. These findings will enable us in the longer term to develop more effective, culturally appropriate school- and community-based interventions to promote healthier lifestyles. Recently I have been recommended for promotion to Assistant Professor. I am confident that the net effect of the promotion and obtaining this fellowship will launch my career in cancer prevention.