The UCSF T32 “Training the Next Generation of Clinical Researchers in Stress Mechanisms and Mental Health” Program provides rigorous interdisciplinary training to postdoctoral researchers to study the social-environmental and biobehavioral causes of mental illness, physical diseases and their comorbidity-- with a special focus on stress, sleep, and health behavior pathways-- as well as innovative interventions, focusing on a range of family, community, and brain-based treatments. Through courses and research experiences in interdisciplinary teams, scholars learn how to apply their knowledge to develop novel approaches to prevent, treat, and cure mental illnesses.
More about the program:
Guiding Model: Integration of Biological & Social Exposome Factors. Below we show an integrative model of the multilevel factors that influence mental health, developed by the program’s founder and pioneer, Dr. Nancy Adler. To develop a meaningful understanding of mental illness at the population health level, we need to understand the biological factors that range from physical function to the cellular and multi-omic level (proteomics, metabolomics, epigenetics, genetics).
However, these biological factors alone will not help us predict, treat, or prevent mental disorders. Rather, we also need to understand the set of etiological factors that are found in our “social exposome,” individual differences in psychosocial and behavioral factors, as well as the social environment – stressors, relationships, neighborhoods, and communities, and physical environmental exposures. Figure 1 is based on the socioecological model from individual to society and represents a move from precision medicine to precision population health by including the social exposome (Nielsen et al.,2024). It is important to include the “social exposome” factors (the top triangle) because they not only can help explain the incidence of mental illness but also illuminate opportunities for social-environmental and behavioral innovative interventions to improve mental and physical health, including trans-level interventions that promote health for all (Goodkind et al., 2024). We bring expertise in team science to work across these levels of analysis, integrating biological and physiological stress mechanisms with biobehavioral and psychosocial factors. Our post-doctoral program at UCSF provides early-career scientists with training in innovative thinking and methodology in this complex area, drawing on strengths in psychiatry, neuroscience, and the social and behavioral sciences.
Our T32 objective is to provide superior interdisciplinary training for new scientists, so they have the conceptual, technical, and professional skills to conduct the most rigorous and high-impact research, guided by strong ethics and passion to help reduce the burden of mental illness and related suffering of individuals and families.
Crayne, M. P. (2026). Unpacking and Extending Moral Injury: Comments on Nielsen et al. (2024). Journal of Business Ethics, 203(1), 205–216. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-025-06009-6
Tracks:
We have two tracks of study, biobehavioral mechanisms and innovative interventions, that intersect, as shown below:
Lifecourse perspective:
We study promotion of mental health trajectories across the lifespan which requires lifecourse models. Our faculty study prenatal factors, childhood and midlife, and older age, biologically sensitive periods (such as prenatal development, early puberty, pregnancy, menopause), and the role of lifecourse stressors (such as early adversity, social status, caregiving, retirement, loss, loneliness), all of which can serve as precursors to mental disorders such as anxiety and depression.
