This Mentored Research Scientist Career Development Award (K01) will provide the candidate with the necessary skills and knowledge to develop an independent program of research that uses epidemiological methods to identify genetic and environmental determinants of psychiatric disorders. Although psychiatric symptoms and disorders, such as depression and anxiety, have a complex etiology and emerge through the effect of genes, experience, and their interaction (e.g., gene-environment interaction; GxE), efforts to identify GxE interactions have had mixed success. The overall aim of the current proposal is to test the hypothesis that GxE effects are strongest during sensitive periods in development, or windows of time in the lifespan when the developing human brain is particularly vulnerable or sensitive to experience, including exposure to social adversity (e.g., child maltreatment, social deprivation). This main hypothesis will be tested in three aims.
Aim 1 will examine the effect of timing of exposure to adversity on emotion recognition skills and subsequent development of internalizing symptoms.
Aim 2 will examine the effect of genetic variation in sensitive period relevant gene pathways on emotion recognition skills and internalizing symptoms. Sensitive period relevant gene pathways will be defined by two sets of genes. The first will be sets of genes identified in the NIMH-funded Brain Cloud resource, a database of temporal patterns of gene expression in the human prefrontal cortex. Genes selected in this gene set will be highly and differentially expressed in the early years of life. Te second gene set will be the human orthologues of genes shown in animal studies to regulate the timing of sensitive periods (i.e., gad2, otx2, rtnf, lynx1, and bdnf). SNPs will be mapped to a gene using ProxyGeneLD. All SNPs in the pathway will be modeled simultaneously; thus no SNP-level tests will be conducted.
Aim 3 will investigate gene-by adversity interactions (GxE), focusing on whether genetic variation in sensitive period relevant gene pathways modifies the association between timing of adversity and both emotion recognition and internalizing symptoms. Findings generated from the proposed research can help identify periods in the lifespan when interventions could be most effective in preventing internalizing symptoms, mechanisms by which adversity increases risk for psychopathology, and possible targets to treat internalizing symptoms and disorders. The training component of the proposed award, centered in the Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital, is designed to provide the candidate with the skills and knowledge necessary to reach her career goals and complete the K01 research aims. The candidate, Dr. Erin C. Dunn, has a background in social and psychiatric epidemiology, but no training in the use of bioinformatics tools, large-scale genomic data, and mechanisms linking exposure to adversity to subsequent risk for internalizing symptoms. Her long-term career goal is to become an independent, translational epidemiologist, with the skills and knowledge to translate findings from basic science research and improve population-level health. To accomplish this goal, Dr. Dunn will be trained in two novel areas: (1) genomic and bioinformatics tools for epidemiology; and (2) developmental neuroscience of psychopathology. Within these training areas, Dr. Dunn will develop the skills to use bioinformatics resources, conduct pathway and gene set analyses, and identify patterns of gene expression. These newly-acquired skills will be integrated with conceptual and methodological strategies to identify sensitive periods in development and the pathways through which exposure to adversity increases risk for psychopathology. Training activities include coursework, workshops, conference attendance, as well as supervised research projects, individual training, and ongoing supervision and consultation. Training will be overseen by two internationally recognized mentors (Dr. Jordan Smoller and Dr. Charles Nelson) and a panel of expert consultants. This interdisciplinary mentorship and consultant team is comprised of experts in molecular and statistical genetics, gene expression, bioinformatics, developmental neuroscience, GxE, and psychiatric disorders. The training aims will be applied in the research component of the award. The research component consists of two studies designed by Drs. Dunn, Smoller, and Nelson to test the hypotheses linked to the aims noted above. The studies use data from the two largest, individually- genotyped general population datasets in the world, in which internalizing symptoms, emotion regulation skills, and exposure to adversity have been deeply phenotyped from early childhood through adolescence. These studies are: the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (n=13,988) and the Generation R study (n=9,745). Together, these training and research projects will constitute the basis for an R01 proposal that Dr. Dunn will prepare in the third year of the award period. This R01 will employ the training and research completed during the award period and will seek to replicate and extend findings that support a GxE informed model to identify sensitive periods. Depending on the K01 results, such a model could include specific gene sets, measures of emotion recognition skills and other social competencies, timing of adversity, and measures of depression, anxiety, and internalizing symptoms. It could also include other factors that mitigate or reverse the effects of exposure to adversity during the sensitive period (e.g., fetal drug exposure).

Public Health Relevance

The proposed project examines the etiologic relationship between genes, exposure to adversity, and their interaction (i.e., gene-environment interaction; GxE) on emotion recognition skills and subsequent development of internalizing symptoms in children and adolescents. Findings generated from this research will help identify sensitive periods in development, or times in the lifespan when the effects of adversities are most harmful. The identification of sensitive periods in development will aid in determining mechanisms through which adversity increases risk for psychopathology and will help guide the investment of public health resources to when they can have the highest impact on reducing risk for mental disorder.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Scientist Development Award - Research & Training (K01)
Project #
5K01MH102403-04
Application #
9313721
Study Section
Child Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities Study Section (CPDD)
Program Officer
Sarampote, Christopher S
Project Start
2014-07-05
Project End
2018-06-30
Budget Start
2017-07-01
Budget End
2018-06-30
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2017
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Massachusetts General Hospital
Department
Type
DUNS #
073130411
City
Boston
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02114
Milliren, Carly E; Evans, Clare R; Richmond, Tracy K et al. (2018) Does an uneven sample size distribution across settings matter in cross-classified multilevel modeling? Results of a simulation study. Health Place 52:121-126
Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia; Qi, Qibin; Dave, Tushar et al. (2018) Polygenic Risk for Depression Increases Risk of Ischemic Stroke: From the Stroke Genetics Network Study. Stroke 49:543-548
Vaughn-Coaxum, Rachel A; Wang, Yan; Kiely, Jenna et al. (2018) Associations Between Trauma Type, Timing, and Accumulation on Current Coping Behaviors in Adolescents: Results from a Large, Population-based Sample. J Youth Adolesc 47:842-858
Dunn, Erin C; Nishimi, Kristen; Gomez, Stephanie H et al. (2018) Developmental timing of trauma exposure and emotion dysregulation in adulthood: Are there sensitive periods when trauma is most harmful? J Affect Disord 227:869-877
Dunn, Erin C; Soare, Thomas W; Raffeld, Miriam R et al. (2018) What life course theoretical models best explain the relationship between exposure to childhood adversity and psychopathology symptoms: recency, accumulation, or sensitive periods? Psychol Med 48:2562-2572
Dunn, Erin C; Crawford, Katherine M; Soare, Thomas W et al. (2018) Exposure to childhood adversity and deficits in emotion recognition: results from a large, population-based sample. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 59:845-854
Dunn, Erin C; Sofer, Tamar; Wang, Min-Jung et al. (2018) Genome-wide association study of depressive symptoms in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos. J Psychiatr Res 99:167-176
Van der Auwera, Sandra; Peyrot, Wouter J; Milaneschi, Yuri et al. (2018) Genome-wide gene-environment interaction in depression: A systematic evaluation of candidate genes: The childhood trauma working-group of PGC-MDD. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet 177:40-49
Dunn, Erin C; Nishimi, Kristen; Powers, Abigail et al. (2017) Is developmental timing of trauma exposure associated with depressive and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in adulthood? J Psychiatr Res 84:119-127
Dunn, Erin C; Wang, Yan; Tse, Jenny et al. (2017) Sensitive periods for the effect of childhood interpersonal violence on psychiatric disorder onset among adolescents. Br J Psychiatry 211:365-372

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