Featured Postdoc: Meridith Eastman, Ph.D.

Featured Postdoc: Meridith Eastman, Ph.D.

By Jessica Bourdon

Meridith Eastman, Ph.D., is a post-doctoral fellow at Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics working with Dr. Roberson-Nay, Ph.D. Her overall interest is the intersection of biological, psychological, and social influences on adolescent health and wellbeing. Dr. Eastman’s Ph.D. training in public health captured the social component of her interests while her post-doctoral training is fulfilling her biological and psychological interests. VIPBG is the perfect place for her to continue her training, ...

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Featured Student: Sage Hawn

Featured Student: Sage Hawn

By Jessica Bourdon

Sage Hawn is a Ph.D. candidate in the Clinical Psychology program at VCU. Her desire to be a scientist-practitioner dates back to her adolescent years. As a teenager, Ms. Hawn went on several mission trips and subsequently became interested in human behavior and, more specifically, the effects of trauma on human behavior. Wanting to be part of the solution, she majored in psychology as an undergraduate at VCU. By her senior year, Ms. Hawn’s ...

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Major mental illnesses unexpectedly share brain gene activity, raising hope for better diagnostics and therapies

Major mental illnesses unexpectedly share brain gene activity, raising hope for better diagnostics and therapies

Mental illness affects one in six U.S. adults, but scientists’ sense of the underlying biology of most psychiatric disorders remains nebulous. That’s frustrating for physicians treating the diseases, who must also make diagnoses based on symptoms that may only appear sporadically. No laboratory blood test or brain scan can yet distinguish whether someone has depression or bipolar disorder, for example.

Now, however, a large-scale analysis of postmortem brains is revealing distinctive molecular traces in people with mental illness. This week, an ...

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Featured Student: Eric Vornholt

Featured Student: Eric Vornholt

By Jessica Bourdon

Eric Vornholt is a Ph.D. student in the Psychiatric, Behavioral, and Statistical Genetics program at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has always been interested in psychology and as an undergraduate at The University of Arizona, expanded this interest to include genetics and neuroscience. As part of his coursework, Mr. Vornholt became keenly aware of how much these two fields intersect, but also how much this intersection is under-studied. After coming to VCU, his primary research ...

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Featured Faculty: B. Todd Webb, Ph.D.

Featured Faculty: B. Todd Webb, Ph.D.

By Jessica Bourdon

Dr. B. Todd Webb, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University. His interest in behavioral genetics developed gradually over his academic career. He majored in biology at VCU but always had an interest in genetics. Over time, he became passionate about how complex systems work and later obtained his Ph.D. in human genetics. This allowed him to hone his skills while providing him ...

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Featured Postdoc: Chris Chatzinakos, Ph.D.

Featured Postdoc: Chris Chatzinakos, Ph.D.

By Jessica Bourdon

Chris Chatzinakos, Ph.D. is a post-doctoral fellow at the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, working with Dr. Silviu-Alin Bacanu, Ph.D. His Ph.D. is in robust statistics and electrical engineering and he has already completed one post-doctoral engagement in electrical engineering. This position focused on teaching and when it was over, Dr. Chatzinakos wanted a position that would bring together his full knowledge of math and engineering. Currently, he focuses on software ...

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VCU researchers recognized for being in the top 1 percent of most cited authors for 2017

VCU researchers recognized for being in the top 1 percent of most cited authors for 2017

Three Virginia Commonwealth University faculty have been recognized in a list of the top 1 percent of most-cited researchers in 2017. The list was aggregated by Clarivate Analytics, which uses data from Web of Science, a major scientific citation indexing service, to identify qualifying researchers.

VCU faculty on the Highly Cited Researcher list for 2017 include Arun Sanyal, M.D., a professor of internal medicine in the School of Medicine; Thomas Eissenberg, Ph.D., a professor of psychology in the College of Humanities ...

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VCU, Swedish study finds genetics and environment equally contribute to major depression transmission

VCU, Swedish study finds genetics and environment equally contribute to major depression transmission

Parent-to-offspring transmission of risk for major depression is the result of genetic factors and child-rearing experiences to an approximately equal degree, according to a new study conducted by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University and Lund University in Sweden. The discovery is the result of the first large-scale adoption study of major depression.

The study, “Sources of Parent-Offspring Resemblance for Major Depression in a National Swedish Extended Adoption Study,” published Dec. 13 in JAMA Psychiatry, a monthly, peer-reviewed medical journal produced by ...

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The 2017 VIPBG Excellence Awards Announced

The 2017 VIPBG Excellence Awards Announced

By Jessica Bourdon

The Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics pre- and post-doc awards were announced on December 7, 2017 and presented by Drs. Roxann Roberson-Nay, Ph.D., and Michael Neale, Ph.D.

Ashlee Moore was presented with the Kenneth S. Kendler Award for Excellence in Pre-Doctoral Research, and Lance Rappaport, Ph.D. received the Lindon Eaves Post-Doctoral Award. These awards are given annually by VIPBG faculty to one outstanding pre- and post-doctoral trainee who have demonstrated ...

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Featured Faculty: Judy Silberg, Ph.D.

Featured Faculty: Judy Silberg, Ph.D.

By Jessica Bourdon

Dr. Judy Silberg, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human and Molecular Genetics. A fortuitous meeting with Drs. Lindon Eaves, D.Sc., Nick Martin, and Andrew Heath while working on her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University led to her life-long involvement in the field of behavior genetics. Her initial research interest began with the influence of genetic and environmental factors on pre- and peri-menstrual disorders using data on ...

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