Margaret Davis, PhD, a first-year postdoctoral fellow under the mentorship of Irina Esterlis, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, won the best poster/presentation award at the Yale Clinical Neuroimaging Symposium on February 8.
The title of her presentation was “In vivo quantification of mGluR5 availability in posttraumatic stress disorder.” Davis, who works in the Yale Translational Brain Imaging Program, was recognized for the clarity of her delivery, her organization, and her responses to questions.
The evaluators also commented on the potential importance of the work, its potentially significant clinical implications, and that Davis integrated discussion of those implications into the presentation. Future research recommendations were provided.
The glutamate receptor mGluR5 has been identified as a potentially promising target for intervention in PTSD based on the role it plays in the development of fear conditioning and evidence from preclinical studies that mGluR5 antagonists produce anxiolytic effects.
The project examined mGluR5 in vivo in people with PTSD for the first time. Based on their findings, researchers concluded that mGluR5 warrants additional research attention for treatment of people with PTSD and major depressive disorder, and as a potential biomarker for suicidal behavior.
Davis started work at Yale in September 2016 after finishing her doctoral work and internship in clinical psychology at Auburn University and VA Ann Arbor/University of Michigan, respectively.
“Since graduate school, motivated in large part by my clinical contact with veterans, my work has focused on trying to contribute to (the) understanding of the relationship between PTSD and suicide risk,” she said.
She is working with Esterlis and her collaborator, Robert Pietrzak, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, to learn how to use positron emission tomography, or PET imaging, to explore the neurobiological substrates of suicidal behavior in trauma survivors, and biological mechanisms underlying the relationship between nicotine dependence and suicidal behavior in PTSD and comorbid mood disorders.