Candidate: I am an NIH T32 Postdoctoral Fellow in Women's Reproductive Mood Disorders in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. Career Goals: My primary career goal is to become an independently funded genetics researcher with the expertise necessary to conduct large-scale genomics research of postpartum depression (PPD) phenotypes in order to develop comprehensive risk models for PPD. Ultimately, a better understanding of the etiology of PPD could lead to improved clinical care, perhaps including improved detection, differential diagnosis, and predictive models of risk and prognosis. Career Development: My expertise is in bioinformatics, epigenetics, and molecular genetics lab techniques. To conduct the PGC-scale GWAS mega/meta-analyses that are needed to understand the biological basis of PPD I need additional mentored training to build my skills in three areas: 1) foundations in statistical genetics, 2) its applications in standard GWAS analyses pipelines, and 3) identification of PPD symptom components. Research Project: Led by my mentor team, I capitalize on existing projects and analyze existing GWAS datasets for PPD (10,261 cases, 55,714 controls). First, I will determine comparability of cohorts using PPD- specific GRS following rigorous quality control. I will then conduct imputation and association meta- analyses across eight genotyped cohorts for PPD (10,261 cases, 55,714 controls) using the standard PGC pipeline. Second, I will determine heritability of PPD and genetic overlap with MDD and other psychiatric disorders. Third, I will perform careful enrichment analyses on identified PPD variants using functional genomic data and targets of known MDD pharmacotherapies. In addition, I will apply PPD-specific GRS to genotyped MDD samples associated with population registries (Sweden, Denmark, QIMR, UK, BioVU) and determine if differences in PPD-specific GRS (1st decile v. 10th decile) stratify clinical presentations. These results will inform future independent applications (R01s) mapping unique contributions of genes and environment to predict PPD risk. Environment: The majority of the research and training will take place in the Departments of Psychiatry and Genetics at UNC. I will also complete training aims at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. Mentorship: The core mentorship team consists of Dr. Patrick Sullivan, lead mentor, who is an internationally recognized expert in psychiatric genetics research and founder of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium; Dr. Samantha Meltzer-Brody, co-mentor, an expert in perinatal mood disorders research and leader of the PACT Consortium; and Dr. Naomi Wray, a statistical geneticist focusing on complex phenotypes including psychiatric disorders. All mentors have worked together successfully on multiple projects and their combined mentorship will place me in an ideal position to succeed as an independent investigator with the ability to lead projects from sample collection through analyses and interpretation.
PPD is a common and often devastating complication of childbirth with substantial morbidity, mortality, and personal and societal costs. Identifying contributors of genetic risk (Aim 1) and how they overlap with other psychiatric disorders (Aim 2) will make a significant contribution to understanding the biological pathways and clinical targets of PPD (Aim 3). Considering our limited knowledge about the causes of PPD, understanding the genetic risk factors could lead to improved clinical care, perhaps including improved detection, differential diagnosis, and predictive models of risk and prognosis.
