This is an application in response to RFA-Recovery Act Limited Competition: Supporting New Faculty Recruitment to Enhance Research Resources through Biomedical Research (P30) ~ to provide support for recruitment of a junior faculty clinician scientist to work in and further develop a multidisciplinary program in the area of biomarkers of mood disorders. We are currently searching for an assistant professor to work on functional brain imaging biomarkers of mood disorders across the lifespan. The faculty member will have a primary appointment in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University Medical School and will be a member of the Stanford University Mood Disorders Center.
The specific aims of the proposal are: 1. To provide start up funding for an assistant professor, clinician scientist with a primary interest in mood disorders with a particular emphasis on functional magnetic resonance imaging (f-MRI) studies aimed at elucidating the neurobiology of these disorders. 2. To provide an enriched interdisciplinary environment to support the continued research career development of junior faculty member(s). 3. To provide funding for interdisciplinary pilot studies on f-MRI of depressed and/or anxious patients and controls across the lifespan. An example of the type of indisciplinary research proposed is reflected in recent work pointing to potential differences in the processing and regulation of emotion in patients with major depression or generalized anxiety disorder, and to test these biomarkers on noncomorbid and comorbid cohorts of patients with these disorders. Anxiety- and depression-related biomarkers identified in this core set of experiments will then be applied in adolescent and geriatric pilot studies. Taken together, these studies may help our understanding of the pathophysiology of depression across the life span.
Mood disorders are extremely common and are associated with great morbidity. Interdisciplinary research involving brain imaging can help understand the biological bases of major depression and aid in differential diagnosis and treatment development. A junior faculty will be supported to conduct research that can help our understanding of the development of depression across the lifespan.
