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UNDERSTANDING MECHANISMS OF RISK AND RESILIENCE THROUGHOUT BRAIN & BEHAVIOR DEVELOPMENT

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THE CHALLENGES THAT DRIVE OUR WORK

  • To understand why some youths who grow up with developmental stress become suicidal, while others do not (resilient).

  • To timely identify those at risk for serious psychopathology and divert the developmental trajectory from risk to resilience.

THE QUESTIONS WE ASK

  • What are the mechanisms that drive variability in the development of brain and behavior? 

  • How do environmental (E) exposures (e.g., trauma, neighborhood environment) interact among themselves (E X E), and with biological (e.g., genetic (G)) factors (G X E), to shape developmental trajectories of youth?

OUR VISION

  • Promote resilience and prevent suicide and serious psychiatric outcomes in youths.

OUR MISSION

  • Conduct impactful translational science aimed at reducing youth mental health burden.

Home: About

OUR RESEARCH

In the BarziLab, we use multiple methods to understand variability in the development of brain and behavior.

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We study how a myriad of environmental exposures (such as trauma and socioeconomic factors) dynamically interact among themselves, and with biological factors (such as genetic and epigenetic) to shape the development of brain and behavior.

Home: Features

OUR VALUES

We collect and analyze large human datasets.

We do collaborative interdisciplinary science.

We work with basic scientists to inform mechanistic gaps that can only be investigated in animal models.

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OUR APPROACH

CONDUCT LONGITUDINAL STUDIES

BarziLab studies at-risk youths throughout development in attempt to elucidate the immune mechanisms associated with risk and resilience to developmental stress.

ANALYSE EXISTING LARGE-SCALE INFORMATIVE DATASETS

BarziLab uses available human datasets that can inform on the factors (features) that drive risk and resilience. We are specifically interested in integrating data from multiple levels of environmental exposures (exposome) with large scale biological data (e.g., genomics, imaging) and other available data sources (such as electronic health records) in order to better understand complex mechanisms of development and to allow prediction of adverse behavioural outcomes such as suicidal behavior.

Home: Publications

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Probing the digital exposome: Associations of social media use patterns with youth mental health

NPP—Digital Psychiatry and Neuroscience

Pagliaccio, D., Tran, K.T., Visoki, E. et al. Probing the digital exposome: associations of social media use patterns with youth mental health. NPP—Digit Psychiatry Neurosci 2, 5 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44277-024-00006-9

Classification of suicide attempt risk using environmental and lifestyle factors in 3 large youth cohorts

JAMA Psychiatry

Visoki, E., Moore, T. M., Zhang, X., Tran, K. T., Ly, C., Gatavinš, M. M., DiDomenico, G. E., Brogan, L., Fein, J. A., Warrier, V., Guloksuz, S., & Barzilay, R. (2024). Classification of Suicide Attempt Risk Using Environmental and Lifestyle Factors in 3 Large Youth Cohorts. JAMA psychiatry, e241887. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2024.1887

A general exposome factor explains individual differences in functional brain network topography and cognition in youth

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

Keller, A. S., Moore, T. M., Luo, A., Visoki, E., Gataviņš, M. M., Shetty, A., Cui, Z., Fan, Y., Feczko, E., Houghton, A., Li, H., Mackey, A. P., Miranda-Dominguez, O., Pines, A., Shinohara, R. T., Sun, K. Y., Fair, D. A., Satterthwaite, T. D., & Barzilay, R. (2024). A general exposome factor explains individual differences in functional brain network topography and cognition in youth. Developmental cognitive neuroscience, 66, 101370. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101370

Exposomic and polygenic contributions to allostatic load in early adolescence

Nature Mental Health

Hoffman, K.W., Tran, K.T., Moore, T.M. et al. Exposomic and polygenic contributions to allostatic load in early adolescence. Nat. Mental Health 2, 828–839 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-024-00255-9

The ethics of risk prediction for psychosis and suicide attempt in youth mental health

The Journal of Pediatrics

Smith, W. R., Appelbaum, P. S., Lebowitz, M. S., Gülöksüz, S., Calkins, M. E., Kohler, C. G., Gur, R. E., & Barzilay, R. (2023). The ethics of risk prediction for psychosis and suicide attempt in youth mental health. The Journal of Pediatrics, 263, 113583. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2023.113583

Association between state-level access to reproductive care and suicide rates among women of reproductive age in the United States

JAMA Psychiatry

Zandberg, J., Waller, R., Visoki, E., & Barzilay, R. (2023). Association between state-level access to reproductive care and suicide rates among women of reproductive age in the United States. JAMA psychiatry, 80(2), 127–134. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2022.4394

COLLABORATORS

We aim to solve complicated challenges that require a multidisciplinary team of clinicians,
data scientists, geneticists, immunologists, developmental psychologists, basic neuroscientists and computational biologists.

TYLER MOORE, PhD

University of Pennsylvania

Statistics and Psychometrics

VARUN WARRIER, PhD

University of Cambridge

Genetics of Complex Traits

AARON ALEXANDER BLOCH, MD PhD

University of Pennsylvania

Neuroimaging

FUCHIANG (RICH) TSUI, PhD

University of Pennsylvania

Clinical Informatics

Home: Projects

SELECTED PROJECTS

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Allostatic load in early adolescence: gene - environment contributions and relevance for mental health

EXCITED ABOUT WHAT WE DO?

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