SUNY Downstate Professor Earns Prestigious Development Award from the National Institutes of Health
By Office of Communications & Marketing | May 23, 2024
Assistant Professor Gayathri Pandey Awarded National Institute of Health K01 Mentored Research Scientist Development Award
BROOKLYN, NY – SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University today announced that Assistant Professor Gayathri Pandey, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, has been awarded a five-year K01, $905K grant from the NIH National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) for her proposed research titled “Interplay of parenting, genetics, and brain function in trajectories of resilience and risk for alcohol use disorder among high-risk adolescents and young adults”.
The prestigious K01 Mentored Research Scientist Development Award will support Dr. Pandey’s training and development in the areas of brain function and genetic epidemiology of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), and health disparities research. Training in these areas will be applied to a research program that will examine the intersection of parenting, genetic factors, brain function, and alcohol behaviors during adolescence through young adulthood in a high-risk and ethnically diverse sample.
“This work is an important step in my own development as an independent researcher and for providing a scaffold for broadening my focus on other social psychological factors, such as family and social networks (e.g., partners, peers) that may protect and contribute to resilience against alcohol and other substance use problems and mental health conditions, across the lifespan,” said Dr. Pandey. “My research adapts a biopsychosocial approach to the study of mental health and illness with a special focus on factors that promote resilience and mitigate risk. I am excited about this opportunity and to leverage this K01 training to fuel my career as a social neuroscientist interested in studying the associations among social relationships, brain function, genetics, and mental health across the lifespan”.
Children of parents with AUD are four times more likely to develop AUD. In the US, there are 11 million children under the age of 18 living with a high family history density of AUD. Substantial research has shown that certain atypical profiles of brain function can be biomarkers of liability to develop AUD. Dr. Pandey will utilize the available resources in the Collaborative study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA), to examine the development of neurocognitive function and alcohol problems as a function of key parenting and familial and genetic factors across multiple time points during adolescence and young adulthood--with an aim to understand pathways to resilience and risk for AUD.
The grant involves mentors from the College of Medicine and the School of Public Health, including Bernice Porjesz, Ph.D., and Jacquelyn Meyers, Ph.D., from the Department of Psychiatry and Tracey Wilson, Ph.D., from the Department of Community Health Sciences. Additionally, Azure Thompson, DrPH, MPH, Assistant Professor of Community Health Sciences will be involved as a collaborator on this award.
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About SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University
Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn is one of four academic health centers (AMCs) in The State University of New York (SUNY) 64-campus system and the only SUNY AMC in New York City dedicated to health education, research, and patient care for the borough’s 2.7 million residents. Its flagship hospital, University Hospital at Downstate (UHD), is a teaching hospital and benefits from the expertise of Downstate’s exceptional medical school and world-class academic center research facilities. With a staff of over 800 physicians representing 53 specialties and subspecialties, Downstate offers comprehensive healthcare services to the community.
UHD provides high-risk neonatal and infant services, pediatric nephrology, and dialysis for kidney diseases and is the only kidney transplantation program in Brooklyn. Beyond its clinical expertise, Downstate houses a range of esteemed educational institutions, including its College of Medicine, College of Nursing, School of Health Professions, School of Graduate Studies, and School of Public Health. Downstate fosters innovation through its multifaceted biotechnology initiative, the Biotechnology Incubator and BioBAT, which support early-stage and more mature biotech companies.