Patricia Kinser Receives CCTR Endowment Fund Grant
Patricia Kinser, Ph.D., WHNP-BC, RN, assistant professor in the Department of Family & Community Health Nursing, was awarded a $50,000 grant from the CCTR Endowment Fund to support her study, titled “Social, environmental, and epigenetic mechanisms underlying postpartum depression: A pilot study.” Kinser’s study involves following women through their pregnancies and into the postpartum period to collect relevant data to explore potential social, environmental, and epigenetic (DNA methylation) mechanisms of postpartum depression. The preliminary data may lead to the design of future investigations that will focus on developing tailored health promotion and disease prevention/intervention strategies to reduce the burden of postpartum depression. School of Nursing collaborators are Angela Starkweather, Ph.D., ACNP-BC,CNRN, associate professor and chair of the Department of Adult Health and Nursing Systems, and Leroy Thacker, Ph.D., biostatistician and associate professor in the Department of Family and Community Health Nursing. Other collaborators include Tim York (School of Medicine, Departments of Human and Molecular Genetics, Obstetrics & Gynecology), Ananda Amstadter (School of Medicine, Departments of Psychiatry, Psychology and Human and Molecular Genetics), and Colleen Jackson-Cook (School of Medicine, Departments of Pathology, Human and Molecular Genetics, and Obstetrics & Gynecology).
