Judah Weathers, MD, DPhil, a fellow in the Solnit Integrated Training Program, has been chosen to receive the International Bipolar Foundation Rising Star in Child and Adolescent Research Award.
The award recognizes researchers devoted to improving the understanding and treatment of bipolar disorder (BD) through research.
Weathers was honored for his novel research in longitudinal brain imaging of pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD) in the lab of Hilary Blumberg, MD, John and Hope Furth Professor of Psychiatry and Professor in the Child Study Center and of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging.
The award “will be important to advancing my brain imaging research … to study developmental differences in the white matter connections within emotional brain circuitry in adolescents with PBD and to identify differences in youth at risk for the disorder,” Weathers wrote in his research description. “My long term goal is to apply this new knowledge to generate improved treatment and prevention strategies.”
PBD affects millions of youth worldwide, often rendering it difficult for children to regulate their moods. It can be marked by the severe emotional dysregulation of depressive and manic episodes, and increased risk for suicide.
Research indicates children who have at least one parent with BD are at increased risk of developing BD.
Studies by Yale researchers and others have revealed subtle differences during adolescence in the development of gray matter nodes within the brain circuitry involved in emotion regulation. It is not clear how development of white matter structures that carry connections between these nodes differ during adolescence in PBD, and whether there are early differences that underlie risk of developing BD.
“Improved understanding on ‘how and when’ brain circuitry features develop differently in PBD and at-risk youth are critical to generate more targeted and effective treatments to get brain development ‘back on track,’ thereby decreasing symptoms in those who have developed BD and preventing it in those at risk,” Weathers wrote.