The candidate is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Radiology and Krus Endowed Chair in Psychiatry at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio (UTHSCSA), where he also holds the position of Chief, Division of Mood and Anxiety Disorders. He also is Chief, VA Psychiatry Research, South Texas Veterans Health Care System. Dr. Soares has led his independent research lab, which focuses on brain imaging studies on mood disorders, and has mentored several trainees and young investigators at various levels. At the mid-career stage, he is proposing to continue to develop his research and academic activities, and dedicate a substantial amount of time to mentoring young investigators on patient-oriented research in Psychiatry, in particular in the fields of mood disorders and brain imaging. These activities are very inter-linked to the program at the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) at UTHSCSA. The career development plan proposed here will utilize the mid-career mechanism of the NCRR K24 award to foster Dr. Soares' academic career and allow substantial time for him to continue to dedicate to research activities and mentoring on patient-oriented research. It will focus on studies of the neurobiological mechanisms implicated in causation of bipolar disorder. The K24 application involves a developmental (pilot) research project where 30 bipolar type I and 30 bipolar type II patients will be studied with magnetic resonance imaging (MR!) and spectroscopy (MRS), to begin to examine neurobiological mechanisms implicated across,the bipolar spectrum. Our pilot study will elicit preliminary data towards an R01 application that will further test the hypothesis that brain abnormalities in fronto-limbic brain regions in bipolar spectrum patients are distributed along a continuum, which reflects the spectrum of clinical symptoms seen in these patients. These activities are likely to result in substantial contributions to a better understanding of the pathophysiology of bipolar spectrum disorders. The proposed K24 plan will give the candidate the needed time to continue to develop his independent research lab and to focus on mentoring the new generation of young investigators on patient-oriented research in the field of Psychiatry.
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