Ali Jawaid

Symposium Description

The goal of this session is to bridge the bed-benchside gap in the field of neuropsychiatry through highlighting translational research on the topic. The session capitalizes on lines of research that involve dynamic interaction between the knowledge acquired from animal models and patient cohorts. A special emphasis is on the molecular pathways that are offset by specific environmental exposures and/or life experiences and are crucial to the development, progression, and/or transmission of neuropsychiatric disorders. There is potential to target these pathways for prognostics and therapeutics in the field of neuropsychiatric.   

Talk: "Exposures and Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Small RNAs and their Big Fat Partners"

Life experiences and environmental conditions are strong determinants of brain health in humans. Long-term exposure to adverse conditions, such as traumatic experiences or nutritional insults can not only lead to brain diseases in the exposed individuals but such disease susceptibilities may also be transmitted to their offspring. Two important molecular pathways connect environmental exposures to brain disorders; 1) epigenetic factors, such as non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), and 2) metabolic factors. Notably, our research shows a causal role for ncRNAs in intergenerational transmission of neuropsychiatric disease risk after early life trauma and a potential role for metabolic pathways in mediating this transmission.