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OMB No. 0925-0001/0002 (Rev. 08/12 Approved Through 8/31/2015) BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Provide the following information for the Senior/key personnel and other significant contributors in the order listed on Form Page 2. Follow this format for each person. DO NOT EXCEED FIVE PAGES. NAME: Consuelo Walss-Bass eRA COMMONS USER NAME (credential, e.g., agency login): walssbass POSITION TITLE: Associate Professor EDUCATION/TRAINING (Begin with baccalaureate or other initial professional education, such as nursing, include postdoctoral training and residency training if applicable. Add/delete rows as necessary.) INSTITUTION AND LOCATION Instituto Tecnologico de la Laguna Torreon, MX University of Texas at San Antonio San Antonio, TX University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, TX University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, TX DEGREE (if applicable) Completion Date MM/YYYY B.S. 1992 Chemical Engineering M.S. 1995 Chemistry Ph.D. 2001 Biochemistry Post doctoral 2005 Psychiatric Genetics FIELD OF STUDY A. Personal Statement My research focuses on the understanding of psychiatric disorders at the molecular level. For the past 12 years I have been involved in the identification of genes and genetic variants associated with psychiatric disorders. I have successfully identified novel variants in several genes that play important roles in neurobiological pathways and are promising schizophrenia candidate genes. I now utilize genomic and proteomic approaches in human and animal models to correlate genetic variants with cellular and brain function in order to understand the molecular mechanisms that are involved in development and expression of mental illnesses, as well as in regulation of treatment response. With the aid of NIMH awards I identified a novel schizophrenia-associated neuregulin 1 (NRG1) missense mutation and have used genomic and proteomic approaches to determine how it disrupts gene expression and cell signaling. I recently joined the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston as the Director of the Psychiatric Genetics Program. I have extensive experience with genomic and proteomic methodologies and genotype-phenotype correlations. B. Positions and Honors Positions and Employment Mar 1996-Jan 2001: Graduate Research Associate, Dept. of Biochemistry, UTHSCSA Mentor: Richard F. Ludueña, Ph. D. Sep 2001-Mar 2002. Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Psychiatry, UTHSCSA Mentor: Marty Javors, Ph.D. Sep 2001-Aug 2005: Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Psychiatry, UTHSCSA Mentor: Michael Escamilla, M.D. Sep 2005-Aug 2010: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, UTHSCSA Sep 2011-Present: Associate Professor, with tenure, Department of Psychiatry, UTHSCSA Sep 2011-May 2014: Director, Functional Genomics Program, Department of Psychiatry, UTHSCSA May 2014-Present: Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, UTHSCH OMB No. 0925-0001/0002 (Rev. 08/12 Approved Through 8/31/2015) May 2014-Present: Director, Psychiatric Genetics Program, Department of Psychiatry, UTHSCH Other Experience and Professional Memberships 2008-present Member, Society of Biological Psychiatry 2010-present Member, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology 2009 NIMH Genomic Technologies in Mental Disorders, Grant Reviewer 2013 NIMH Biobehavioral Research Award for Innovative New Scientists (BRAINS), Grant Reviewer 2013 NIH Behavioral Genetics and Epidemiology Study Section, ad hoc reviewer 2013 NIH Behavioral Genetics and Epidemiology Study Section, ad hoc reviewer 2013 Veterans Affair Neurobiology Scientific Review Study, ad hoc reviewer 2013 NIH NICHD Fragile X Centers Grant Reviewer 2013 NIMH K99/R00 grant reviewer 2013 Veterans Affair Neurobiology Scientific Review Study, ad hoc reviewer 2014 NIH NICHD Fragile X Centers Grant Reviewer 2014 NIMH BRAIN Initiative Grant Reviewer 2014-2018 Editor, PLoS One 2014-2018 Regular member NIH Behavioral Genetics and Epidemiology Study Section (BGES) Honors and Awards 1999 Les Societe de Secours de Amis des Sciences Research Fellowship, a 2 month award to do research in Paris, France awarded by nobel laureate Jean Dausset. 2002 NIMH Minority Investigator Research Supplement, 3 year award 2002 Travel Fellowship to attend the Xth World Congress on Psychiatric Genetics, Brussels 2004 Travel Fellowship to attend the XIIth World Congress on Psychiatric Genetics, Dublin 2004 NARSAD Young Investigator research award 2005 Stanley Medical Research Institute, 2 year research award 2005 San Antonio Area Foundation Research Award, 18 months award 2007 NARSAD Young Investigator research award 2007 Stanley Medical Research Institute, 2 year research award 2008 American College of Neuropsychopharmacology Early Career Development Fellowship Award (3 year award to attend the ACNP meetings) 2008 International Congress of Neuropsychopharmacology Congress, Best Poster Award, Munich 2008 2008 NIMH K01 Career Development Award, 5 year research award 2009 BRAINS NIMH award for Innovative New Scientists in Biobehavioral Research, a 5 year R01 grant. 2009 National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) Scientist of the Year Award: Award given by NAMI, San Antonio Chapter, to honor efforts of scientists who work in the field of psychiatric disorders and are involved in educating the community. 2010 American College of Neuropsychopharmacology Associate Membership: By invitation only. 2014 CAPES grant from the Brazilian government. Invited as visiting professor to PUCRS University in Porto Alegre, Brazil. November-December 2014. C. Contribution to Science • My early work focused on identification of genes involved in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in the population isolate of the Central Valley of Costa Rica. I initially used genetic markers to narrow down chromosomal regions that showed evidence of association, and then sequenced individuals who had evidence of association of haplotypes in the regions of interest. I was very fortunate to identify previously unknown variants associated with schizophrenia. 1. Walss-Bass C, Liu W, Lew DF, Montero AP, Dassori A, Leach R, Almasy L, Escamilla MA, Raventos H. (2006) A novel misense mutation in the transmembrane domain of neuregulin 1 is associated with schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry 60(6):548-53. 2. Chavarría-Siles I, Walss-Bass C, Quezada P, Dassori A, Contreras S, Medina R, Ramírez M, Armas R, Salazar S, Leach RJ, Raventos H, Escamilla MA. (2007). TGFB-induced factor (TGIF): a Candidate gene for psychosis on chromosome 18p. Molecular Psychiatry 12(11):1033-41. OMB No. 0925-0001/0002 (Rev. 08/12 Approved Through 8/31/2015) 3. Walss-Bass C. Soto-Bernardini MC, Johnson-Pais T, Leach RJ, Ontiveros A, Nicolini H, Mendoza R, Jerez A, Dassori A, Chavarria-Siles I, Escamilla MA, Raventos H. (2009) Methionine Sulfoxide Reductase: A Novel Schizophrenia Candidate Gene. Am. J. Med. Genet. B Neuropsychiatr Genet 150B(2):219-25. • In addition to the contributions described above, I have performed studies involving genotype-brain phenotype correlations, such as those proposed in the current study. Also, I have performed functional studies using genomic and proteomic approaches to correlate genetic variants with disruption of cellular function. These studies contribute to further our understanding of how identified genetic variants modulate cell and brain function, and how this may lead to development of psychiatric disorders. 4. Frey BN, Walss-Bass C, Stanley JA, Nery FG, Matsuo K, Nicoletti MA, Hatch JP, Bowden CL, Escamilla MA, Soares JC (2007). Brain-derived neurotrophic factor val66met polymorphism affects prefrontal energy metabolism in bipolar disorder. Neuroreport 18(15):1567-70. 5. Matsuo K, Walss-Bass C, Nery FG, Nicoletti MA, Hatch JP, Frey BN, Monkul ES, Zunta GB, Bowden CL, Escamilla MA, Soares JC (2009) Neuronal Correlates of Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor Val66Met Polymorphism and Morphometric Abnormalities in Bipolar Disorder. Neuropsychopharmacology 34(8):1904-13. 6. Marballi K, Quinones MP, Jimenez F, Escamilla MA, Raventos H, Soto-Bernardini MC, Ahuja SS, WalssBass C (2010). In Vivo and In Vitro Genetic Evidence of Involvement of Neuregulin 1 in Immune System Dysregulation. J. Mol. Med. 88(11):1133-41. 7. Moskovitz J, Walss-Bass C, Cruz DA, Thompson PM, Hairston J, Bortolato M (2015). The enzymatic activities of brain COMT and methionine sulfoxide reductase are correlated in a COMT Val/Met alleledependent fashion. Neuropathol Appl Neurobiol. [Epub ahead of print]. 8. Marballi KK, McCullumsmith RE, Yates S, Escamilla ME, Leach RJ, Raventos H, Walss-Bass C. (2014) Global signaling effects of a schizophrenia-associated missense mutation in neuregulin 1: an exploratory study using whole genome and novel kinome approaches. Journal of Neural Transmission 121(5):479-90. • Atypical (or second generation) antipsychotics are the most common and effective type of medication currently used to treat schizophrenia. However, treatment with atypical antipsychotics is known to cause metabolic syndrome (MetS) in patients, and my work has led to identification of alterations mitochondrial energy metabolism as a possible cause for these effects. 9. Walss-Bass C, Weintraub ST, Hatch J, Mintz J, Chaudhuri AR (2008). Clozapine causes oxidation of proteins involved in energy metabolism: a possible mechanism for antipsychotic-induced metabolic alterations. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. 2008 Dec;11(8):1097-104. doi: 10.1017/S1461145708008882. Epub 2008 May 9 10. Contreras-Shannon V, Heart DL, Paredes RM, Navaira E, Catano G, Maffi SK, Walss-Bass C (2013). Clozapine-induced mitochondria alterations and inflammation in brain and insulin-responsive cells. PLoS One. 2013; 8(3):e59012. 11. Paredes RM, Quinones MP, Marballi KK, Gao X, Valdez C, Ahuja SS, Velligan DI, Walss-Bass C. (2014) Metabolomic Profiling of Schizophrenia Patients at Risk for Metabolic Syndrome. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology Feb 25:1-10. • Much of my current work focuses on identification of biological markers in psychiatric disorders, both at the gene and protein level, in both animal and human models. 12. Marballi K, Cruz D, Thompson P, Walss-Bass C. Differential Neuregulin 1 Cleavage in the Prefrontal Cortex and Hippocampus in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder: Preliminary Findings. PLoS ONE (2012) 7(5):E36431. 13. Dimitrov DH, Lee S, Yantis J, Valdez C, Paredes RM, Braida N, Velligan D, Walss-Bass C. (2013). Differential correlations between inflammatory cytokines and psychopathology in veterans with schizophrenia: Potential role for IL-17 pathway. Schizophr Res. 151(1-3):29-35. 14. Walss-Bass C, Fernandes JM, Service H, Velligan D, Roberts DL (2013). Differential correlations between plasma oxytocin and social cognitive capacity and bias in schizophrenia. Schizophr. Res. 147(2-3):387-92. 15. Moskovitz J, Walss-Bass C, Cruz DA, Thompson PM, Bortolato M. (2014) Methionine sulfoxide reductase regulates brain catechol-O-methyl transferase activity. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol 15:1-7. OMB No. 0925-0001/0002 (Rev. 08/12 Approved Through 8/31/2015) D. Research Support (Active) NIMH 5P30MH086045-2 (Bowden, PI) 9/20/11-6/30/16 Optimizing Outcomes in Bipolar Illness Interventions in Hispanic Communities An Advanced Center for Interventions and/or Service Research was established to conduct research that will personalize community based treatment of bipolar disorders to improve outcomes. We will investigate interactions of cultural factors, adherence and engagement, behavioral domains and biological factors with outcomes, thereby providing a model that can transform current diagnostic and treatment paradigms for bipolar disorder. A major aim of this proposal is to better develop our understanding of bipolar disorder in the Hispanic American population, in particular the impact of acculturation on adherence to treatment programs. Role: Sub-contract PI Completed NIMH R01 MH087493. Period 09/17/09-05/14/14 $2,413,068 Immune System & Genetic Modulation of Brain Development & Behavior in Adolescence. Aims: To investigate genes involved in regulation of the inflammatory response during the adolescent developmental period, in order to detect early signs of abnormal brain development and behavior. Role: Principal Investigator NIMH R01 MH087493-S1 Period 05/16/12-05/14/14 $90,819 Immune System & Genetic Modulation of Brain Development & Behavior in Adolescence The goal of the study is to investigate telomere length in adolescents at risk for depression Role: Principal Investigator NIMH K01 MH077777. Period 02/28/2008-12/31/012 $745,196. Aims: To correlate allelic variations with functionality in schizophrenia. Role: Principal Investigator NARSAD Young Investigator Award. Period 07/01/2007-07/31/2010 $60,000. Aims: To correlate a novel neuregulin 1 missense mutation with functionality. Role: Principal Investigator The Stanley Medical Research Institute. Period 08/01/2007-08/31/2010 $149,638. Aims: To investigate geneenvironment interactions in schizophrenia in the population of Costa Rica. Role: Principal Investigator Stanley Medical Research Institute: Period 07/01/05-07/01/07. $150,000. Aims: Proteomic analysis to identify protein oxidation in schizophrenia. Role: Principal Investigator NARSAD Young Investigator Award. Period 07/01/04-07-31-06. $60,000. Aims: Association of Neuregulin 1 and G72 Genes with Schizophrenia in the Hispanic Populate Isolate of Costa Rica. Roel: Principal Investigator NIH/Fogarty International Center, US/Costa Rica Psychiatric Genetics Research Training Program, Period 09/19/2002-08/31/2007 $400,000. Aims: to develop a core of researchers in the area of psychiatric genetics research, from the country of Costa Rica. Role: Co-investigator/mentor