Abraham A. Palmer, Ph.D

Assistant Professor of Human Genetic

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience (joint)

Committee on Genetics and Systems Biology

Committee on Neurobiology

Address:	920 E 58th St; CLSC-507D Chicago, Illinois 60637
Phone:	773-834-2897
Fax:	773-834-0505
Email:	aap@uchicago.edu
Lab Website:	http://www.genes.uchicago.edu/palmer.html http://www.PalmerLab.org

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Education & Training

• A..B., Biology, The University of Chicago, 1992
• Ph.D., Biomedical Sciences, University of California San Diego, 1999

Research Interests

• Drug abuse
• Fear learning and Anxiety
• Translational Genetics
• Mouse Genetics

Teaching

• Course Director: Genetic Analysis of Model Organisms (MGCB 31400)
• Course Director: Genetics of Model Organisms (BIOS 21236)

Society Memberships

• American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
• Society for Neuroscience (SFN)
• International Behavioural Neural Genetics Society (IBANGS)
• Complex Trait Community (CTC)
• International Behavioral Neuroscience Society (IBNS)
• American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG)

Selected Publications

• Aldinger K, Sokoloff G, Rosenberg D, Palmer AA, Millen K Genetic variation and population substructure in outbred CD-1 mice: implications for genome-wide association studies, PLoS One, 2009,4:e4729 PMID: 19266100
• Williams R, Lim JE, Harr B, Wing C, Walters R, Distler MG, Meike T, Wu C, Wiltshire T, Su AI, Sokoloff G, Tarantino LM, Borevitz JO, Palmer AA. A Common and Unstable Copy Number Variant is Associated with Differences in Glo1 Expression and Anxiety-Like Behavior, PLoS One, 2009, 4:e4649 PMID: 19266052
• Bryant C, Graham M, Distler M, Munoz M, Li D, Vezina P, Sokoloff G, Palmer AA. Role for Casein Kinase 1 Epsilon in the Locomotor Stimulant Response to Methamphetamine. Psychopharmacology, 2009, 203:703-11 PMID: 19050854
• Bryant CD, Zhang NN, Sokoloff G, Fanselow MS, Ennes HS, Palmer AA, McRoberts JA. Behavioral differences among C57BL/6 substrains: Implications for transgenic and knockout studies. J Neurogenet, 2008, 22:315-31 PMID: 19085272
• Palmer AA, Brown, AS, Klugewicz D, DeSanti L, Rotrosen J, Butler PD. Prenatal Protein Deprivation Alters Dopamine-Mediated Behaviors and Dopaminergic and Glutamatergic Receptor Binding. Brain Res, 2008 1237:62-74 PMID: 18703024
• Ponder CA, Huded CP, Munoz MB, Gulden FO, Gilliam TC, Palmer AA. Rapid selection response for contextual fear conditioning in a cross between C57BL/6J and A/J: behavioral, QTL and gene expression analysis. Behav Genet, 2008, 38:277-91 PMID: 18363093
• Winawer MR, Makarenko N, Hintz TM, Kamel SM, McCloskey DP, Nair N, Palmer AA, Scharfman HE.  Acute and chronic response to pilocarpine in DBA/2J and A/J mice: A foundation for mapping limbic seizure susceptibility genes in sequenced strains.  Neuroscience, 2007, 149:465-75 PMID: 17904758
• Manichaikul A, Palmer AA, Saunak S, Broman KW. Significance thresholds for quantitative trait locus mapping under selective genotyping, Genetics, 2007, 177:1963-6 PMID: 17720902
• Ponder CA, Munoz M, Gilliam TC, Palmer AA.  Genetic architecture of fear conditioning in chromosome substitution strains: relationship to measures of innate (unlearned) anxiety-like behavior.  Mamm Genome, 2007,18:221-8 PMID: 17492333
• Ponder CA, Kliethermes CL, Drew MR, Muller J, Das K, Risbrough VB, Crabbe JC, Gilliam TC, Palmer AA.  Selection for contextual fear conditioning affects anxiety-like behaviors and gene expression. Genes, Brain Behav, 2007, 6:736-49 PMID: 17309658
• Winawer MR, Kuperman R, Niethammer M, Sherman S, Rabinowitz D, Guell IP, Ponder CA, Palmer AA.  Use of chromosome substitution strains to identify seizure susceptibility loci in mice.  Mamm Genome, 2007, 18:23-31 PMID: 17242861

Selected Conferences & Presentations

• Invited Lecture, Emory University, Department of Human Genetics “Influence of casein kinase 1 epsilon on sensitivity to methamphetamine in mice and men: a translational genetic study.” January 2007, David Weinshenker, Host.
• Invited Lecture, University of Zulia School of Medicine (Venezuela) “Using mice to model behavioral characteristics that are associated with human psychiatric diseases” January 2007, Gladys Maestre, Host.
• Invited Lecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Psychology "Genetic screen for behavioral sensitivity to methamphetamine identifies casein kinase 1 epsilon in both mice and men."  January 2007, Justin Rhodes, Host.
• Symposium Chair and Speaker, Symposium title: “Translational genetic approaches to the study of fear and anxiety”; Talk title “Genetic control of learned fear and innate anxiety-like behavior in mice.” International Behavioral and Neurogenetics Society Annual Meeting, Doorwerth, The Netherlands, May 21-25, 2007.
• Platform Presentation, “Functional studies to investigate the role of casein kinase 1 epsilon (Csn1ke) in the locomotor stimulant response to methamphetamine.” 6th Annual Complex Trait Consortium, Braunschweig, Germany, May 26-29, 2007.
• Invited Speaker, for NIDA organized workshop “Addiction, Microarrays, and Gene Discovery”; Talk title “Combination of QTL Mapping and Gene Expression Microarrays to Identify Candidate Genes for Sensitivity to the Acute Effects of Drugs in Mice and Humans”, Washington DC, May 30-June 1, 2007.
• Symposium Chair and Speaker, Symposium title: “The role of genetics and genomics in understanding fear- and anxiety-like behaviors”; Talk title “Genetic relationship of fear and anxiety, lessons from genetic reference populations and beyond.” International Behavioral Neuroscience Society, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 12-16, 2007
• Symposium Speaker and Substitute Chair, "Mouse QTL and human association study of methamphetamine sensitivity"; Symposium title: "Complex Human Disease Genes: Help from Animal Models", American Society for Human Genetics, San Diego, CA, October 25, 2007.
• Invited Speaker, "Mapping Complex Traits in the Mouse: Concepts"; Short Course on the Genetics and Epigenetics of Addiction, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Washington D.C., April 4, 2008.
• Symposium Chair and Speaker, "Expression differences in Glo1 among mice are due to a common copy number polymorphism"; Symposium title: "Role of oxidative stress in behavior"; International Behavioral and Nuerogenetics Society, Portland, OR, May 5-9, 2008.
• Symposium Speaker, "Interaction of Genetics and Environment: Relevance to Nutrition Research"; Multidisciplinary Workshop on Nutrition, Brain Development and Aging: Genetic, Epigentics, Diet and Behavior, Kannapolis, NC, May 12-14, 2008.
• Symposium Speaker, "Copy number variation causes an eQTL for Glo1 and may underlie differences in anxiety-like behavior in mice Dissection of the expression of fear learning: Fine mapping quantitative trait loci (QTL) underlying components of a polygenic trait.", 7th Annual Complex Trait Consortium, Montreal, Canada, May 31-June 4, 2008.
• Minicourse, " Frontiers in genomics and neurogenetics: Putting it all together: translational genetics of stimulant sensitivity", 42nd Annual Winter Conference on Brain Research, Copper Mountain, Colorado, January 24-30, 2009.
• Plenary Lecture, "Translational Genetics Approach to Amphetamine Sensitivity" 8th Annual Pharmacogenetics in Psychiatry Meeting, New York, NY, April 17-18, 2009.

Other Activities

• Executive Committee for Neurobiology Graduate Program
• Human Genetics Graduate Program, Curriculum Committee
• Training Faculty, Multidisciplinary Psychiatric Genetics Training Program (T32MH200065)
• Training Faculty, Neuropsychopharmacology Training for Drug Abuse Research (T32DA007255)
• Training Faculty, Clinical Therapeutics Training Grant (T32GM007019)
• Member, J.P.Kennedy Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Center (P30HD054275)

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