VCU and partners receive $5.7 million to continue transformative study of clinical depression

Virginia Commonwealth University is part of an international research team that has received a Wellcome Trust grant totaling more than $5.7 million to uncover the underlying biological processes that cause major depressive disorder. The study, to be conducted by researchers from VCU, the University of Oxford and throughout China, is an extension of a study from the same team that uncovered the first identified risk genes for clinical depression last year.

The design of the five-year study will replicate and extend ...

Continue reading →
0

Dr. Vladimirov Receives $400K Alcohol Dependence Grant

Vladimir Vladimirov, M.D., Ph.D., was awarded a two-year grant from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in the amount of $419,375 to study the genome-wide expression patterns of genes and miRNA in the nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex from subjects with alcohol dependence (AD) and healthy controls. The award has two main goals: i) identify AD-relevant gene and miRNA networks and ii) detect genetic polymorphisms found to be associated with AD ...

Continue reading →
0

Brain Structure, Function & Human Development

Michael Neale, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychiatry, Human and Molecular Genetics, and Psychology, as well as associate director of the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics. His career in the field of psychiatric genetics started as an interest in psychology and neuroscience, which developed during his formative adolescent years after reading Jeffrey Gray’s The Psychology of Fear and Stress. Subsequently, he earned both his Bachelor’s and PhD degrees in psychology at the ...

Continue reading →
0

Featured Student: Jeanne Savage

Jeanne Savage is a student in the Psychiatric, Behavioral, and Statistical Genetics PhD program. Her interest in psychiatric genetics began as an undergraduate student at the University of Missouri when she took a behavioral genetics class while working toward her bachelor’s degree in psychology. “I discovered what I felt had been missing from the traditional academic perspectives I had experienced – an integrative and comprehensive framework for how biology, psychology, and society all ...

Continue reading →
0

VCU researchers and international partners first to identify shared risk genes for anxiety disorders

In the largest and most comprehensive study of its kind, researchers have successfully identified two novel genetic variants that could increase risk for the five primary anxiety disorders. The findings are the result of an international collaboration among 34 researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University and throughout academic institutions in the United States, Europe and Australia.

The international research team looked at genetic risk factors that are common across the five primary anxiety disorders identified in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic ...

Continue reading →
0

Understanding The Etiology of Psychiatric Illnesses

Kenneth Kendler, M.D. is Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Human and Molecular Genetics as well as one of the founders of the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics. In collaboration with Lindon Eaves, Ph.D., Dr. Kendler created VIPBG in 1996 as an effort to bring together expert psychiatrists, statisticians, and molecular geneticists under one roof, where he currently serves as Director.

Throughout his career, Dr. Kendler has published over 850 articles, making ...

Continue reading →
0

Featured Postdoc: Tim Bigdeli, Ph.D.

Tim Bigdeli, Ph.D. is a post-doctoral fellow at Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics. His interests in psychiatric genetics began while he was completing his undergraduate degree in biology, where he became fascinated by the diversity of life and how genetics can tell a story about human populations and evolution. He was then exposed to world of psychiatric genetics while he was working on his PhD in Human and Molecular Genetics, also at ...

Continue reading →
0

Student researches ‘subtle biological differences’ of addiction

Binge drinking is a growing problem in the United States, but are all problem drinkers the same? That is a question Virginia Commonwealth University student Megan Cooke hopes to answer.

Cooke has been interested in alcohol dependence and alcohol use behavior since receiving a postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award to work at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. She quickly realized the importance of genetic influences in the development of addiction — “Ignoring [the genetics] would be ignoring a ...

Continue reading →
0
Page 10 of 13 Previous...89101112...Next