The candidate is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and an epidemiologist with limited training in molecular genetics, statistical genetics/bioinformatics and autism who wishes to develop her capacity to conduct independent genetic epidemiology research in developmental psychopathology and genome-wide association studies. The overall goal of this proposal is to develop expertise in genetic epidemiology;an integrated, interdisciplinary translational science that combines epidemiology, functional genomics, molecular genetics, high-throughput genotyping, bioinformatics and specialized computational methods. This expertise is needed to help uncover disease mechanisms and translate acquired knowledge to the prevention and interventions for complex diseases such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). These skills will be acquired and enhanced through close relationships with mentors and by carefully planned integrated and interfacing coursework and mentored research. Educational goals of this proposal are to develop new skill sets through tutorials and coursework: 1) to develop a conceptual framework for studying population genetics (Kenneth Kidd), rare genetic variant approach and genetic mechanisms in disease processes (Matthew State) and common genetic variant approach in developmental psychopathology (Edwin Cook);2) to develop computational skills for analyzing intensive and complex genetic epidemiological databases and to develop bioinformatics skills for managing massive, complex sets of interactive genetic data (Hongyu Zhao);3) to understand phenotype, endophenotype, trajectory and neurobiology of ASD (Fred Volkmar);and, 4) to apply a translational scientific approach to the knowledge generated from the proposed research by examining its public health significance and its implication for screening, diagnoses and intervention (James Leckman). The research proposal includes three specific aims relating directly to the training goals: 1) to maintain and expand the Korean epidemiological cohort (in an enthinically and genetically disctinictive Korean population) already established as a part of an Autism Speaks-funded grant, 2) to collect comprehensive phenotype data on the Korean sample, and 3) to test the association of three candidate genes in a two-stage association study design with an internal replication sample, which will in turn allow for generation and testing of hypotheses about gene-environment interactions in ASD. This proposal takes an advantages of a rare opportunity to enrich an ongoing study while supporting an expansion of the applicant's research skills and abilities.
