IMH Marshall Scholars and Fellows Program

The UBC Institute of Mental Health (IMH) Marshall Scholars and Fellows Program in Mental Health supports the training of young investigators in translational research in order to create vital training opportunities and research capacity in mental health.

Inspired by Sunny and Stewart Marshall’s vision and commitment to advance mental health research, the IMH Marshall Scholars and Fellows Program invests in promising young scholars who will contribute to advancing understanding and treatment of psychiatric disorders.

Annually, the IMH in partnership with the UBC Department of Psychiatry invites applications from qualified candidates for Scholar and Fellow awards which are supported by the Marshall Scholars and Fellows Program in Mental Health. The program funds stipends of $75,000 per year for each Fellow and $25,000 per year for each Scholar, for up to two years.

UBC IMH MARSHALL FELLOWS AND SCHOLARS OF 2020-2021

FELLOWSHIP AWARDEES

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DR. RUIYANG GE
FELLOW

Dr. Ge’s research centers around the study of neuroimaging in healthy population and patients with psychiatric disorders. As evidence supports the notion that there is an association between rTMS treatment induced changes in brain function and autonomic nervous system, understanding this association is important for translational purpose because an avenue for identifying a functionally meaningful stimulation target for rTMS treatment is to probe the brain-heart connection. Dr. Ge's project aims first to interrogate the association between rTMS treatment induced changes in brain function and autonomic nervous system. The secondary aim is to test whether the fMRI data and heart rate varilability (HRV) metric serve as potential predictors for treatment response of the following 4-week rTMS treatment.

Supervisor: Dr. Fidel Vila-Rodriguez

(Dr. Ge was appointed as a Research Associate within Dr. Sophia Frangou's research group in January 2021)

DR. HEATHER PALIS
FELLOW

Dr. Palis is currently engaged in studies to advance the health and well-being of people who use substances and are involved in the criminal justice system. Her project will utilize the BC Provincial Overdose Cohort (BC-ODC), a linked administrative health and corrections dataset, to ascertain the effects of the health services transfer on reincarceration and overdose among persons with psychiatric disorders and criminal justice system involvement (CJSI). Her study’s objectives include describing the epidemiology of polysubstance use and overdose among people with psychiatric disorders, identifying trends of: a) health services utilization; b) reincarceration; and c) non-fatal and fatal overdose before and after the transfer among persons with CJSI involvement with and without psychiatric disorders, and identifying health services utilization characteristics that have a protective effect on risk of reincarceration and fatal and non-fatal overdose among people with psychiatric disorders.

Supervisor: Dr. Amanda Slaunwhite & Dr. Tonia Nicholls

DR. NICOLE SANFORD
FELLOW

Dr. Sanford's research seeks to build upon prior research that has established that major psychiatric disorders, notably schizophrenia (SCZ), bipolar disorder (BD), and to a lesser degree major depressive disorder (MMD), are associated with accelerated brain aging, reflected in a higher Brain age gap estimation (BrainAGE) in patients as compared to healthy individuals. Her project targets the two most significant unanswered questions with regards to accelerated aging in major psychiatric disorders: namely, how early it can be detected and what are the key environmental drivers. Addressing these key issues is the crucial first step towards early detection of accelerated aging and effective intervention to minimise modifiable risk factors.

Supervisor: Dr. Sophia Frangou

DR. GAYATRI SARAF
FELLOW

Dr. Saraf's current research investigates the role of increased inflammation in BD in reduced neuronal plasticity, neurite density and cognitive impairment. Brain inflammation can be assessed with Positron Emission Tomography (PET) by estimating the density of the translocator protein (TSPO), a receptor that is upregulated in the mitochondria of immune-activated microglia cells. However, as this has yet to be be evaluated in-vivo, her project will use PET imaging with ¹¹C-PBR-28, a 2nd generation TSPO tracer, to assess brain microglial activation in patients with BD. The objective of this study is to understand the relationship between brain inflammation, brain microstructural changes and cognitive impairment in BD.

Supervisor: Dr. Lakshmi Yatham

DR. MELISSA WOODWARD
FELLOW

Dr. Woodward is currently researching the innovative use of of ultra-high-resolution retinal imaging using optical coherence tomography (OCT), which allows the direct quantification of retinal nerve fibers and microvasculature using a non-invasive, quick eye examination, in the early detection of pathologies
prominent in marginally-housed psychiatric populations. The objective of her project is to carry out an investigation using OCT imaging of the retina in an impoverished population in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, in order to assess damage to the blood vessels of the retina and to see if this helps to explain the relationship between fentanyl use and clinical factors like impaired thinking abilities and psychiatric symptoms.

Supervisor: Dr. William Honer

SCHOLARSHIP AWARDEES AND RESEARCH TITLES

ASHLEY BATTAGLINI Intra- and Interpersonal Emotion Regulation in Major Depressive Disorder		ARIANA CAHN Quantification of cortical thickness changes in bipolar disorder patients following first episode mania: A prospective study

MALLORY FLYNN Estimating the True Incidence of Accidental Illicit Drug Overdose		TONY FONG High Throughput Platform to Assess and Manipulate Cortical Circuits in Mouse Models of Depression

ALLISON GIESBRECHT Understanding the Healthcare Access Experiences of Mental Health and Substance Use High Users of Healthcare		TRISTAN HYNES Toward a Precision Treatment for Addiction: Focus on Dopamine Circuits and Sex
BONNIE LEE The Impact of Motherhood and APOE Genotype on the Aging Brain		DAPHNE LING The Neural Basis of Low-Dose versus Normal-Dose Psychostimulants on Executive Functions in Youth with Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder: A Randomised Controlled Trial
MELANIE LYSENKO-MARTIN Neural and Behavioral Substrates of THC-Induced Impairments in Decision Making		ALEXANDER MORIN Integrating transcription factor binding and perturbation data to understand gene regulation in the brain
RAE MORRIS Mental Health Service Provision with Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Interpretive Description Study		SHAWNA NARAYAN Exploring cultural responsiveness in e-mental health resources for depression and anxiety (CREDA)
MAYA NESBIT Preclinical Study of d-govadine and its Effects on Corticostriatal Mechanisms of Amphetamine Addiction		BOAZ SAFFER Identifying the Neurocognitive Mechanisms of Suicidal Behaviours in Emerging Adults
JEAN WESTENBERG Rapid micro-induction of buprenorphine/naloxone for treatment of Opioid Use Disorder

UBC IMH MARSHALL FELLOWS AND SCHOLARS OF 2019-2020

DR. TRAVIS ELLINGTON HODGES
FELLOW

RESEARCH TITLE: Neural Mechanisms Underlying Sex Differences in Depression and Negative Cognitive Bias in Susceptible Populations

Travis is researching the neural mechanisms that underpin pessimistic thinking, a common aspect of depression. His research pays particular attention to how it differs according to age and sex.

He says, “We see lots of treatments based on research solely done in adult males. However, we’ve found in our lab that many treatments do not work the same in females, so we want to see if there are sex-specific effects on pessimism related to inflammation and the growth of new neurons in the brain. My background includes a lot of study in the different ways that stressors affect the adolescent brain, so my research as a Marshall Fellow will hopefully lead to multiple treatments tailored for groups susceptible to cognitive symptoms of depression, such as teenage girls.”

DR. EMMA MORTON
FELLOW

RESEARCH TITLE: Advancing the Science on Quality of Life in Mood Disorders: A Synergistic, Multi-Method Program of Research

Emma’s work investigates the growing evidence that people can have a good quality of life despite the symptoms they experience from mood disorders. She will look at large-scale data sets that have been collected through various UBC studies to determine how quality of life relates to other variables and how it responds to treatments.
A smartphone app will be created to enable people with bipolar disorder track their quality of life, and all of this data, along with other information such as screen time and physical activity will be analyzed using machine learning, which is a type of artificial intelligence that studies data to build mathematical models and make predictions. These will be used to direct people to strategies which might help improve their quality of life.

DR. KATERINA RNIC
FELLOW

RESEARCH TITLE: A Randomized Controlled Feasibility Trial of Cognitive Control Training for Major Depressive Disorder

Katerina’s work looks at how cognitive control—the brain’s ability to control the contents of its awareness at a given time—is involved in the onset of an episode of depression. People suffering from this illness have cognitive control biases, where they become stuck in a feedback loop of negative information. Katerina aims to create a novel cognitive control program to train depressed patients to inhibit this negative information and regulate their emotions. This training program will be something that is easily disseminated to clinicians, and even patients; they will be able to access it online, meaning that it has the potential to reach people in rural communities who don’t have access to care. It also has potential for patients who may not wish to use medication, such as pregnant women.