Uma Rao, PhD

The proposed Project 3 will test the effects of early-life exposure to unpredictable maternal and environmental signals on behavioral and neural substrates of anhedonia in offspring during the transition to adulthood. My clinical and research qualifications make me a suitable candidate to serve as a co-investigator on this project.

I have board-certification in general as well as child and adolescent psychiatry. I have over two decades of clinical and research experience in adolescent psychopathology, with emphasis on mood and substance use disorders, during the developmental transition to adulthood. My research is focused on the interaction of neurobiological (including sleep, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, neurocognitive and neuroimaging) and psychosocial (temperament, self-efficacy, environmental stress and social support) processes as potential predictors of the onset and longitudinal clinical course of these disorders in vulnerable populations (including youth with a history of childhood maltreatment and familial risk). Currently, I have a R01 institutional transfer application focusing on neural changes distinguishing phenotypes of adolescent major depressive disorder with and without childhood maltreatment, with an emphasis on anhedonia and reward systems. Additionally, I have examined developmental and ethnic influences on neurobiological processes. Also, I have been involved in translational intervention research related to these two conditions.