# Mentoring in Youth Suicide Research

> **NIH NIH K24** · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · 2024 · $213,369

## Abstract

Abstract
I am a clinical psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and an Associate Professor at Harvard
Medical School. I also serve as Director of Suicide Research in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
at MGH. The long-term goal of my research is to clarify risk processes and mechanisms underlying the onset
and recurrence of self-injurious thoughts and behaviors and depression in youth and young adults, with a
particular focus on state-sensitive and temporally delimited phenomena that may underlie short-term risk for
these outcomes. Through this work, I aim to advance our understanding from who is at risk to how and when
they are at risk for these clinical outcomes, thereby ultimately to improve preventive intervention strategies for
high-risk youth and young adult populations. I aim to pursue these goals and objectives directly through my
own patient-oriented research (POR) and more broadly through mentoring early career investigators in clinical
and translational research. I am currently PI on 2 R01-level grants and an MPI on another R01 and an R21, all
supported by the NIH and involving complementary evaluations of how stress-related processes place
vulnerable adolescents at heightened short-term risk for suicidal outcomes. In addition to my own research, I
currently serve on the training committee of the clinical psychology internship program at MGH, as well as
three T32 training programs within the Harvard system focused on suicide, youth mental health, and clinical
neuroscience. I have mentored 40 trainees thus far across all career stages, from high school students to early
career faculty (including 3 K23 awardees and 1 R01 awardee), in POR. The K24 award will provide me with
protected time (30%) to expand my mentorship activities with trainees pursuing careers in POR. It will also
allow for protected time (20%) to continuing and extending my POR, particularly with a focus on stress
processes in social media exchanges, as well as to acquire fundamental skills in natural language processing
to further this aim in my own work as well as that of my future mentees. Training opportunities will occur
primarily within the context of one of my active R01s (MH124899), with additional data pooled from my current
RF1 (MH120830). Both these grants involve ambulatory assessments of short-term risk for suicidal thoughts
and behaviors among adolescent psychiatric inpatients in the first month after discharge, a period of
particularly elevated risk for these outcomes. My recently completed R01 project, ongoing NIH-supported
research, and proposed new research within this K24 will provide mentorship opportunities focused on POR
with suicide and related outcomes. Finally, the K24 would provide me with training opportunities further
developing my mentorship and leadership skills to benefit future mentees in POR.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11053913
- **Project number:** 1K24MH136418-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Richard T Liu
- **Activity code:** K24 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $213,369
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-05 → 2028-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11053913

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11053913, Mentoring in Youth Suicide Research (1K24MH136418-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11053913. Licensed CC0.

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