FNNDSC Weekly Newsletter - Week 6
Key Dates
· July 6 - 10: Landmark Phase 1 Re-Entry
· July 8, 10:00 AM: Bi-Weekly Lecture Series with Dr. Aaron Alexander-Bloch
Helpful Links
Bi-Weekly Lecture Series
· This week's Bi-weekly Lecture Series (July 8th from 10 - 11 AM) features Dr. Aaron Alexander-Bloch.
· Dr. Aaron Alexander-Bloch is an Assistant Professor for the Department of Psychiatry at University of Pennsylvania as well as an Attending Psychiatrist for the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
· His talk topic is titled "Integrating lifespan trajectories of brain MRI morphology and post-mortem gene expression."
· Please read his abstract below:
This talk introduces a collaborative effort to bridge lifespan brain imaging and brain transcriptomic levels of analysis, across biological resolutions. I argue that some of the limitations of psychiatric neuroimaging to date may be mitigated by integration with genomic data, and I discuss different approaches to combined imaging-genomics studies. For the present project, we have compiled in-vivo neuroimaging data from across the lifespan (n~70,000; min=birth, max=88.77, M=48.07, SD=25.06) in order to construct developmental trajectories for phenotypes such as cortical surface area, cortical thickness, gray matter volume and white matter volume. We have also combined brain gene expression data from multiple consortia (n~1,500) in order to define parallel neurodevelopmental patterns of gene expression. A primary goal of this project is the identification of specific transcripts, cell types, and molecular processes that coincide with particular developmental periods and anatomical processes measured in vivo (e.g. white matter maturation, synaptic pruning). Establishing an imaging-genomic atlas of human brain development would help to identify mechanisms of normative psychological processes, and would provide a foundation for identifying biological signatures of abnormal development.
How have we adapted to work from home?
Filiz Yetisir took up wood burning as her quarantine hobby. Look at her beautiful creations below!
If you would like to share your work from home set up, fun quarantine activities, or pictures of your quarantine pet pals on the weekly newsletter series, please email gauravi.prabhu@childrens.harvard.edu.