Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2010

Mentor: Uma Rao, M.D.
Department: Psychiatry
Room number: FL5.537
Mail Code: 9101
Phone number: 214-648-5260
E-mail: uma.rao@utsouthwestern.edu
Project title: Neuronal Risk Markers for Nicotine Dependence in Youth

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): 032004-052 (8/14/04)

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): NA

Project Type (patient-based research, animal-based research, or basic research; this characterization is only to permit a general classification for grouping similar types of projects)

Brief Description of Project:

This project seeks to identify characteristics of brain structural volumes that predict the risk for development of nicotine dependence (ND) in adolescents. It employs a prospective design and utilizes magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to identify possible structural abnormalities in specific brain regions to cognitive challenges in youth at high- and low-risk for ND. We hypothesize that altered structural brain regions will be related to the development of ND in a longitudinal study and that the observed brain changes are more prominent in the high-risk group. The adolescents also will participate in follow-up studies of MRI assays (after the onset of ND in those who develop it) to determine if, and to what extent, changes in brain structural volumes occur as a consequence of ND by comparing the baseline and follow-up measurements. The longitudinal design will distinguish pre-existing vulnerability markers for smoking and ND from changes in brain structural volumes due to chronic smoking.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:

Bidesi AS, Mehta SQ, Ernst M, Tamminga C, Rao U: Neuronal circuits involved in motivational processes: alterations in adolescent depression. Presented at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Toronto, ON, Canada, October 18-23, 2005.

Huang D, Bidesi A, Zheng S, Rao U: Hippocampal changes associated with adolescent depression. Presented at the 93rd Annual Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons, New Orleans, LA, October 7-11, 2007.

Rao U, Huang D, Zheng S, Bidesi A: Effect of early adversity on hippocampal volume in depressed adolescents. Presented at the 46th Annual Meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, Boca Raton, FL, December 9-13, 2007.

Huang D, Zheng S, Bidesi A, Rao U: Hippocampal changes associated with adolescent depression. Presented at the The 46th Annual Medical Student Research Forum, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, January 22, 2008.

Michael Coffey's work acknowledged in Rao U, Chen LA, Bidesi A, Shad M, Thomas MA, Hammen C, Hippocampal Changes Associated with Early-Life Adversity and Vulnerability to Depression, Biological Psychiatry, accepted Dec 2009 (In Press)