The 51st Annual Meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology was held in Hollywood, FL in December, 2012 with over 1700 members and guests in attendance. Several faculty members and trainees from the Child Study Center were in attendance and/or represented in the scientific sessions.
Attending as past travel awardees were junior faculty members, Instructor Tom Fernandez and Assistant Professor Hanna Stevens. Hanna presented a poster co-authored with Harris Professor Flora Vaccarino on the role of fibroblast growth factor signaling in ADHD-like behaviors, arising only from FGF receptor manipulation during early development.
Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor Paul Lombroso served as a discussant at the conclusion of a panel entitled “Sink or Swim: Take Your Raft and Fyns Down the STEPs to Navigate NMDA Receptor Pools in Neuropsychiatric Disorders” during which multiple presentations were made about the role of striatal enriched tyrosine phosphatase which regulates glutamatergic neuronal transmission in multiple neuropsychiatric disorders: the cognition and seizures of Fragile X syndrome, focal cerebral ischemia, alcohol drinking, and cocaine administration.
Although unable to attend, Assistant Professor Michael Bloch was lead author on a study with Nelson Harris Professor Jim Leckman entitled “N-acetylcysteine in the Treatment of Pediatric Trichotillomania: A Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Trial” which was presented as a poster. Co-author Chris Pittenger, a Yale Assistant Professor in Psychiatry with a secondary appointment in the Child Study Center, presented the findings that n-acetylcysteine does not show a benefit in youth with trichotillomania unlike that found for adults. Michael also was co-author on a study with colleagues in the Yale Department of Psychiatry, including senior author John Krystal, president of ACNP, on changes in brain connectivity that occur with the NMDA-receptor antagonist ketamine.
Multiple Child Study Center members, Donald J. Cohen Professor Matthew State (in attendance at the ACNP meeting), Senior Research Scientist George Anderson, Solnit Integrated Senior Resident Kyle Williams, Assistant Professor Michael Crowley, Arnold Gesell Professor Linda Mayes and aforementioned Chris Pittenger co-authored a study on A New Animal Model of the Pathophysiology of Tourette Syndrome: Parallel Characterization of Humans and Mice with a Disruption of the Histidine Decarboxylase (Hdc) Gene.
Professor Bob King co-authored an abstract with colleagues at the National Institute of Mental Health summarizing new findings about “Common and Rare Gain-of-function Alleles of the Serotonin Transporter Gene, SLC6A4, Associated with Tourette Disorder.”