# Identifying and quantifying genetic effects on neurodevelopmental trajectories in adolescents

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · 2021 · $393,907

## Abstract

Project Summary
The staging and pacing of neurodevelopmental change during adolescence exhibits observable individual
differences, yet how much of this between- and within-subject variation is attributable to genetic factors is
unknown. Current understanding of the genetic basis for brain structure and function measured by
neuroimaging data is based on analyses of (mostly cross-sectional) adult samples. By obtaining results from a
developmentally-critical period, i.e. adolescence, we will be able to determine whether the identified genetic
components are time-invariant traits or time-sensitive developmental results. Our long-term goal is to
determine the causal mechanisms underlying vulnerabilities to risky behavior and psychiatric disorders that
emerge during adolescence. To achieve this goal, we aim to search for genetic factors associated with
developmental variation measured by multi-modal neuroimaging data. We propose three approaches to
perform unbiased genetic analyses of data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD)
study: 1) Extract patterns of developmental changes across brain regions; 2) Identify associated genetic loci
through integrated genome-wide association studies across derived developmental multi-modal imaging
phenotypes; 3) Determine the relationship between genetic risk for psychiatric diseases and
neurodevelopmental trajectories. We will pursue these aims utilizing a novel combination of methods from
population genetics and neuroscience while innovatively tailoring the analytic strategies to avoid potential
biases and spurious associations due to admixture and relatedness. The proposed research is significant
because the identified genetic mechanisms will provide a potential basis for therapeutics and public health
interventions, attending to the impact of the epidemiologically guided sampling of ABCD data. By sharing the
tools we develop in this research program and the resulting genetic instruments, we will impact the field
immediately, enabling researchers to more deeply investigate neurodevelopmental processes with ABCD data
as well as with other accumulating datasets to which they have access.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10135146
- **Project number:** 5R01MH122688-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Chun Chieh Fan
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $393,907
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-04-01 → 2025-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10135146

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10135146, Identifying and quantifying genetic effects on neurodevelopmental trajectories in adolescents (5R01MH122688-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10135146. Licensed CC0.

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