Dr. James Bjork of the VCU Collaborative Advanced Research Imaging facility, together with Dr. Michael Neale of the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics have received a $6 million award from the National Institutes of Health to take part as a consortium site of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. The ABCD study is the largest longitudinal neuroimaging study of human brain development ever launched, and will recruit over 10,000 9- and 10-year olds at 20 research institutions across America, and is slated to follow the children for ten years. The study will feature biannual MRI scans for changes in brain structure and function, as well as annual measurement of cognition, academic success and other life history factors. The VCU site is one of four consortium sites (including the University of Minnesota, University of Colorado-Boulder, and Washington University in St. Louis) that will be recruiting pairs of twins to yield additional clarification of hereditary and environmental influences on brain development. The ABCD study holds tremendous potential to understand both normal and atypical brain development across human adolescence. Read the details of the NIH study here.
Michael Mason's work on using texts to curb teen smoking has been published in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.
Affiliate faculty member, Norman Camp, M.D. has book highlighted in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Dr. Kenneth Kenler's work on genes linked to major depression is discussed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Dr. Ken Kendler, Professor of Psychiatry at the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics publishes with international partners in Nature evidence that identifies specific genetic clues to the underlying cause of clinical depression for the first time in scientific history.
