Curriculum Vitae
Seth A. Ament, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Date: November 2, 2016
Contact Information
Business Address: Institute for Genome Science
801 West Baltimore St., Bio Park II, Room 640
Baltimore, MD 21201
Phone Number: (410) 706-5681
Email:
Education
2003 A.B., Biology, Harvard University (cum laude)
2010 Ph.D., Neuroscience, University of Illinois
Advisor: Gene E. Robinson
Dissertation: “Nutrition, Hormones, Transcriptional Regulatory Networks and Division of Labor in Honey Bee Colonies”
Post Graduate Education and Training
2010 – 2011 Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, California
Mentor: Kristin Scott
2012 – 2016 Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, Washington
Co-Mentors: Nathan Price and Leroy Hood
Employment History
Academic Appointments
2016 – present Assistant Professor, Psychiatry, UMSOM
2016 – present Faculty Member, Institute for Genome Sciences, UMSOM
2016 – present Faculty Member, Maryland Psychiatric Research Center
Professional Society Membership
2012 – present Bipolar Genome Study
2012 – present Bipolar Sequencing Consortium
2012 – present International Society for Psychiatric Genetics
2013 – present Molecular Psychiatry Association
2013 American Society for Human Genetics
2004 – present Society for Neuroscience
Honors and Awards
1999 National Finalist, Intel Science Talent Search
2000 – 2003 Harvard College Scholarship
2002 Center for Genomics Research Internship, Harvard University
2009 Ladd Prosser Memorial Award, Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois
2010 University of Illinois Neuroscience Program Award for Outstanding Research
2010 Procter & Gamble Company Doctoral Student Research Award
2010 George C. Eickwort Student Research Award, International Union for the Study of Social Insects, North American Section (runner-up)
2014 Early Career Investigator Oral Presentation Award, World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics
2014 Early Career Investigator Travel Award, World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics
2015 Oral Presentation Award (2nd Prize), Gordon Research Seminar on Human Genetics and Genomics
2015 Travel Award, Molecular Psychiatry Association
Administrative Service
Local and National Service
National Service
2010 Chair, Gordon Research Seminar on Genes and Behavior, Ventura, CA
2008 – 2012 Ad Hoc Reviewer, Insect Molecular Biology (1x/yr)
2010 Ad Hoc Reviewer, Molecular Ecology
2010 – 2012 Ad Hoc Reviewer, Naturwissenschaften (1x/yr)
2010 – present Ad Hoc Reviewer, PLoS One (1x/yr)
2010 – 2014 Ad Hoc Reviewer, Journal of Experimental Biology (1x/yr)
2011 Ad Hoc Reviewer, PLoS Genetics
2011 Ad Hoc Reviewer, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A.
2015 Chair, Nanosymposium on “Genomic and Systems Level Analyses of Neurologic Disease,” Society for Neuroscience, Chicago, IL
2016 Ad Hoc Reviewer, JAMA Psychiatry
2016 Ad Hoc Reviewer, Molecular Neuropsychiatry
2016 Ad Hoc Reviewer, Psychiatric Genetics
Local Service
2006 Posters Co-Chair, UIUC Cell & Molecular Biology Training Grant Symposium
2006 Coordinator, Open House Poster Session, UIUC Neuroscience Program
2006 – 2010 Presenter at Brain Awareness Day, UIUC: “What’s the Buzz About?”
2006 – 2007 Student Representative, Admissions Committee, UIUC Neuroscience Program
2007 Nontechnical research presentation to the Heart of Illinois Beekeeper’s Association
2007 – 2008 Co-Chair, Student-Invited Speaker Committee, UIUC Neuroscience Program
2008 Contributor to Illinois NeuroNews
2008 Speaker, University of Illinois Short Course on Bees and Beekeeping
2009 Nontechnical research presentation to the Cook-Dupage Beekeeping Association
2009 Speaker at the University of Illinois Pollinator Museum
2011 Co-Chair for Professional Development, UC Berkeley Postdoctoral Association
2012 – 2013 Co-Chair, Postdoctoral Advisory Board, Institute for Systems Biology
2013 Guest Speaker, HERO Institute, STEM Education Enrichment Program for Underrepresented Youth
2014 Judge, Aki Kurose Middle School Science Fair, Seattle, Washington
Teaching Service
Undergraduate Student Teaching
2003 – 2004 Mentor, Research Assistants, Laboratory of James Traniello, Boston University
3, undergraduate, ~10 hours per week
2004 – 2006 Mentor, Research Assistant, Laboratory of Gene Robinson, University of Illinois
1, undergraduate, Mira Kolodkin, 6 hours per week and daily contact during the summer
2005, 2006, 2007 Mentor, Summer Research Training Program, Laboratory of Gene Robinson, University of Illinois
1, undergraduate, Henry Pollock, daily contact during three consecutive summers
2005 – 2006 Mentor, Research Assistant, Laboratory of Gene Robinson, University of Illinois 1, undergraduate, Daniel Moyse, 6 hours per week and daily contact during the summer
2007 Laboratory Coordinator, Illinois Summer Neuroscience Institute
~20, undergraduate, daily contact for one week
2008 Laboratory Coordinator, Illinois Summer Neuroscience Institute
~20, undergraduate, daily contact for one week
2008 – 2010 Mentor, Research Assistant, Laboratory of Gene Robinson, University of Illinois
1, undergraduate, Jeff Hinchman, 6 hours per week and daily contact during the summer
2009 Teaching Assistant for Merit Sections, MCB 252, “Cells, Tissues, and Development”, University of Illinois
30, undergraduate, 1.5 hours per week for 1 semester
2012 Lecturer, Summer Intern Program, Institute for Systems Biology
10, undergraduates, 1 hour lecture
2012 Mentor, Summer Research Internship Program, Institute for Systems Biology
1 undergraduate, Nathaniel Howard, daily contact for the summer
2013 Panelist, Undergraduate Intern Program, Institute for Systems Biology
10, undergraduate, 1 hour
2015 Mentor, Summer Research Internship Program, Institute for Systems Biology
1, undergraduate, Bijou Basu, daily contact for the summer
Post-Graduate Teaching
2007 Mentor, Post-Baccalaureate Student, Laboratory of Gene Robinson, University of Illinois
1, post-graduate, S. Pier Johnson, daily contact for 1 year
2009 Mentor, Rotation Student, Laboratory of Gene Robinson, University of Illinois
1, post-graduate, Martina Mustroph, daily contact for 3 months
2008 – 2009 Mentor, Entering Ph.D. student, Laboratory of Gene Robinson, University of Illinois
1, post-graduate, Marsha Wheeler, daily contact for 9 months
2008 – 2009 Mentor, Masters Student, Laboratory of Gene Robinson, University of Illinois
1, post-graduate, daily contact for 1 year
2015 – 2016 Mentor, Post-Baccalaureate Student, Institute for Systems Biology
1, post-graduate, Dani Bergey, daily contact for 12 months
2014 Lecturer, Summer Course on Systems Biology, Institute for Systems Biology
50, post-graduate, 1 hour
2015 Lecturer, Summer Course on Systems Biology, Institute for Systems Biology
50, post-graduate, 1 hour
2016 Instructor, Current Topics in Genome Biology GPLS692, University of Maryland, Baltimore
5, post-graduate, 1.5 hours
Grant Support
Active Grants:
01/15/15 – 01/15/17 (PI: 25%)
“Identification and Validation of Genetic Risk Variants for Bipolar Disorder by Whole-genome Sequencing of an Extended Amish Pedigree”
Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. NARSAD Young Investigator Award
Annual Direct Costs: $32,019
Total Direct Costs: $64,038
Completed Grants:
2006 – 2009 (PI, 100%)
National Science Foundation, Graduate Research Fellowship
Annual Direct Costs: $30,000
Total Direct Costs: $90,000
2009 – 2010 (Trainee, 100%)
“Sensory Neuroscience Training Program”
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, T32, 5T32DC006612-03
Total Direct Costs: $24,000
2014 (PI, 0%)
“Systems Biology Validation of Bipolar Disorder Risk Variants using CRISPR/Cas9 Genome Editing”
Institute for Systems Biology, Intramural Competitive Seed Funding Award
Total Direct Costs: $16,000
Publications
Peer-reviewed journal articles
1. Ament S.A., Bullis R., Hanlon R.T., and Mensinger A. (1997) Righting response and escape response in Opsanus tau are temperature dependent. Biol Bull 193:265-266.
2. Hanlon R.T., Ament S.A., and Gabr H. (1999) Behavioral aspects of sperm competition in cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis (Sepioidea: Cephalopoda). Marine Biol 134:719-728.
3. Shashar N., Borst D.T., Ament S.A., Saidel W.M., Smolowitz R.M., and Hanlon R.T., (2001) Polarization reflecting iridophores in the arms of the squid Loligo pealeii. Biol Bull 201:267-268.
4. Honeybee Genome Sequencing Consortium (2006) Insights into social insects from the genome of the honeybee Apis mellifera. Nature 443:931-49.
5. Kunieda T.*, Fujiyuki T.*, Kucharski R.*, Foret S.*, Ament S.A.*, Toth A.L.*, Ohashi K., Takeuchi H., Kamikouchi A., Kage E., Morioka M., Beye M., Kubo T., Robinson G.E., and Maleszka R. (2006) Carbohydrate metabolism genes and pathways in insects: insights from the honey bee genome. Insect Mol Biol 15:563-576.
6. Ament S.A., Corona M., Pollock H.S., and Robinson G.E. (2008) Insulin signaling is involved in the regulation of worker division of labor in honey bee colonies. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 105:4226-4231.
7. Brockmann A. Annangudi S.P., Richmond T.A., Ament S.A., Xie F., Southey B.R., Rodriguez-Zas S.R., Sweedler J.V., and Robinson G.E. (2009) Quantitative peptidomics reveal brain peptide signatures of behavior. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 106:2383-2388.
8. Ament S.A., Wang Y., and Robinson G.E. (2010) Nutritional regulation of worker division labor in honey bee colonies: a systems perspective. Wiley Interdiscipl Rev: Systems Biol Med. 2(5):566-576.
9. Ament S.A., Velarde R.A., Kolodkin M., Moyse D., and Robinson G.E. (2011) Neuropeptide Y-like signaling and nutritionally-mediated gene expression and behavior in the honey bee. Insect Mol Biol. 20(3):335-345.
10. Ament S.A., Chan Q.W., Wheeler M.W., Nixon S.E., Johnson S.P., Rodriguez-Zas S.R., Foster L.J., and Robinson G.E. (2011) Mechanisms of stable lipid loss in a social insect. J Exp Biol. 214:3808-3821.
11. Chandrasekaran S., Ament S.A., Eddy J.A., Rodriguez-Zas S.R., Schatz B.R., Price N.D., and Robinson G.E. (2011) Behavior-specific changes in transcriptional modules lead to distinct and predictable neurogenomic states. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 108:18020-18025.
12. Ament S.A.*, Wang Y.*, Chen C.-C., Blatti C., Hong F., Negre N., White K.P., Rodriguez-Zas S.L., Mizzen C.A., Sinha S., Zhong S., and Robinson G.E. (2012) The transcription factor ultraspiracle influences honey bee social behavior and behavior-related gene expression. PLoS Genet. 8(3):e1002596.
13. Ament S.A.*, Blatti C.*, Alaux C.*, Wheeler M.W., Toth A.L., Le Conte Y., Hunt G.J., Guzmán-Novoa E., DeGrandi-Hoffman G., Uribe-Rubio J.L., Amdam G.V., Page R.E., Rodriguez-Zas S.L, Robinson G.E. and Sinha S. (2012) New meta-analysis tools reveal common transcriptional regulatory basis for multiple determinants of behavior. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 109:E1801-E1810.
14. Greenberg J., Xia J., Zhou X., Thatcher S.R., Ament S.A., Newman T.C., Green P.J., Zhang W., Robinson G.E., and Ben-Shahar Y. (2012) Behavioral plasticity in honey bees is associated with differences in brain microRNA transcriptome. Genes Brain Behav. 11(6):660-670.
15. Ko Y.*, Ament S.A.*, Caballero J., Earls J.C., Hood L., Price N.D. (2013) Cell-type specific genes show striking and distinct patterns of spatial expression in the mouse brain. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 110(8):3095-3100.
16. Wheeler M.M., Ament S.A., Rodriguez-Zas S.M., and Robinson G.E. (2013) Brain gene expression changes elicited by peripheral vitellogenin knockdown in the honey bee. Insect Mol Biol. 22:562-573.
17. Brownstein C.A., et al. (2014) An international effort towards developing standards for best practices in analysis, interpretation and reporting of clinical genome sequencing results: The CLARITY Challenge. Genome Biol. 15(3):R53.
18. Glusman G., Dhankani V., Robinson M., Farrah T., Mauldin D.E., Severson A., Stittrich A.B., Ament S.A., Roach J.C., Brunkow M.E., Bodian D.L., Vockley J.G., Shmulevich I., Niederhuber J.I., and Hood L. (2015) Identification of copy number variants in whole-genome data using Reference Coverage Profiles. Front Genet. 6:45.
19. Ament S.A., Szelinger S., Glusman G., Ashworth J., Hou L., Akula N., Shekhtman T., Badner J.A., Brunkow M.E., Mauldin D.E., Stittrich A.B., Rouleau K., Detera-Wadleigh S., Nurnberger J.I., Edenberg H.J., Gershon E.S., Schork N.J., The Bipolar Genome Study, Price N.D., Gelinas R., Hood L., Craig D.W., McMahon F.J., Kelsoe J.R., and Roach J.C. (2015) Rare variants in neuronal excitability genes influence risk for bipolar disorder. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 112(11):3576-3581.
20. Wheeler M.M., Ament S.A., Rodriguez-Zas S.M., Southey B., and Robinson G.E. (2015) Diet and endocrine effects on behavioral maturation-related gene expression in the pars intercerebralis of the honey bee brain. J Exp Biol. 218:4005-4014.
21. Bragg R.M., Coffey S.R., Weston R.M., Ament S.A., Cantle J.P., Minnig S., Funk C.C., Shuttleworth D.D., Woods E.L., Sullivan B.R., Jones L., Glickenhaus A., Anderson J.S., Anderson M.D., Dunnett S.B., Wheeler V.C., MacDonald M.E., Brooks S.P., Price N.D., and Carroll J.B. Motivational, proteostatic and transcriptional deficits precede synapse loss, gliosis and neurodegeneration in the B6.HttQ111/+ model of Huntington's disease. Scientific Reports. Submitted. Preprint: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/081109
22. Ament S.A.*, Pearl J.R.*, Grindeland A.*, St. Claire J., Earls J.C., Kovalenko M., Gillis T., Mysore J., Gusella J.F., Lee J.M., Kwak S., Howland D., Lee M., Baxter D., Scherler K., Wang K., Geman D., Carroll J.B., MacDonald M.E., Goodman N., Carlson G., Wheeler V.C., Price N.D., and Hood L.E.. High resolution time-course mapping of early transcriptomic, molecular and cellular phenotypes in Huntington’s disease CAG knock-in mice across multiple genetic backgrounds. Human Mol Genet. Submitted.
23. Ament S.A.*, Pearl J.R.*, Bragg R.M., Skene P., Coffey S.R., Plaisier C.L., Wheeler V.C., MacDonald M.E., Baliga N.S., Rosinski J., Hood L.E., Carroll J.B., and Price N.D. Genome-scale transcriptional regulatory network models for the mouse and human striatum predict roles for SMAD3 and other transcription factors in Huntington’s disease. Mol. Systems Biol. Submitted. Preprint: http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/11/10/087114
Major Invited Speeches
Local
1. Research in Progress Seminar Series, Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA, 2012
2. University of Washington Postdoctoral Association Annual Research Symposium, 2012
3. Presentations of High-Profile Papers, Institute for Systems Biology Annual Retreat, Port Townsend, WA, 2013
4. Research in Progress Seminar Series, Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA, 2014
5. “Rock Star Series” special presentation to ISB faculty, Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA, 2015
6. Research in Progress Seminar Series, Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA, 2015
7. Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, November 18, 2016
8. Brain Science Research Consortium Unit Seminar Series, University of Maryland, Baltimore, December 6, 2016
National
9. Student Data Blitz, Gordon Research Conference on Genes and Behavior, Ventura, CA, 2005
10. Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Symposium, W.M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 2006
11. Woods Hole Behavior Symposium, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, 2006
12. Session on Neurobiology and Behavior, Workshop on Honey Bee Genomics and Biology, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, NY, 2007
13. Biology Department, Southeastern Missouri State University, Port Girardeau, MO, 2008
14. Laboratory of Kristin Scott, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 2009
15. Gordon Research Conference on Genes & Behavior, Ventura, CA, 2010