# Biopsychosocial Risk Factors for Psychiatric Disorders Following Kidney Transplantation

> **NIH NIH K23** · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · 2022 · $202,598

## Abstract

Project Summary
Psychiatric disorders are highly prevalent following kidney transplantation (KT) and significantly reduce the
survival and quality of life of KT recipients. KT is a severely limited resource, and extensive efforts are made by
transplant programs to anticipate post-KT co-morbidities. However, major depressive disorder (MDD) and post-
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) both have ~20% point prevalence in KT recipients. The overarching aim of this
proposal is to systematically investigate genomic, clinical, and psychosocial contributors to MDD and PTSD
following KT. The specific aims are: 1) generate a retrospective electronic health record-based cohort of KT
recipients to characterize biopsychosocial risk factors for psychiatric disorders post-KT; 2) establish a
prospective cohort of KT candidates to follow trajectories of psychiatric symptoms and risk factors; and 3)
develop a predictive model for psychiatric disorders in KT recipients. Kidney disease disproportionately impacts
traditional minorities, and most KT recipients are not of European ancestry. When calculating genetic risk score
for KT recipients, I will leverage new and diverse training sets and a growing toolkit of genomic methods to
appropriately estimate genetic risk across ancestry. I anticipate that this work will improve our ability to
understand and mitigate risk of psychiatric disorders for kidney disease patients more broadly and will
build on efforts to apply genomic data to patients with non-European ancestry.
Dr. Nash is a physician-scientist deeply committed to her primary career goal of improving the mental health of
severely ill patients, with an emphasis on those awaiting or living with a solid organ transplant. Her long-term
research goal is to build clinical registries with genomic data to elucidate risk factors and etiology of psychiatric
disorders in solid organ transplant recipients that will inform the future ideal of personalized, targeted, and pre-
emptive treatment for those at risk for psychiatric co-morbidities. Dr. Nash has a PhD in biological chemistry with
a strong scientific background, is a fellowship-trained Psychiatrist, and now requires training in clinical research
and psychiatric genetics to accomplish her goals as an independently funded investigator. The research outlined
in this proposal will provide the necessary training in 1) the design, management, and statistical analysis of
clinical databases; 2) survey methodology to capture psychological traits during prospective cohort studies; and
3) GWAS data interpretation and calculation of genetic risk scores. Dr. Nash has built a core mentorship team
consisting of Dr. Samantha Meltzer-Brody (co-lead mentor), a physician-scientist and internationally recognized
expert in mood disorders; Dr. Patrick Sullivan (co-lead mentor), a world-renowned psychiatric geneticist; Dr. Yun
Li (co-mentor), a statistical geneticist who developed core methods for genomics, including imputation and
genetic a...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10518061
- **Project number:** 1K23MH128613-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
- **Principal Investigator:** Rebekah Potts Nash
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $202,598
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-08-01 → 2027-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10518061

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10518061, Biopsychosocial Risk Factors for Psychiatric Disorders Following Kidney Transplantation (1K23MH128613-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10518061. Licensed CC0.

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