A Young Investigator Grant from the Brain Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) has been awarded to Giorgia Picci, Ph.D., director of the Cognitive Affective Neurodevelopment in Youth Laboratory (CANDY Lab) at the Boys Town National Research Hospital Institute for Human Neuroscience.
The goal of the BBRF Young Investigator Grant, which provides up to $35,000 annually for two years, is to help researchers launch careers in neuroscience and psychiatry while gathering pilot data to support future grant applications.
“This award is a huge honor because it identifies promising neuroscience researchers in the field of mental health,” said Dr. Picci. “It will support our new project that is focused on puberty and autism, which is very understudied.”
Dr. Picci joined the faculty at the Boys Town Institute for Human Neuroscience in 2023. Her research in the CANDY Lab integrates multiple levels of biology to study how they can influence mental health during development.
“Since she arrived, Dr. Picci has continued to distinguish herself as a researcher,” said Ryan McCreery, Ph.D., Vice President of Research at Boys Town National Research Hospital. “We are proud to see her work recognized and look forward to seeing this study unfold.”
Advancing Autism Research
Dr. Picci’s study explores how adolescents with autism experience puberty—a stage when their social world can become increasingly complex with challenging social cues and dynamics.
“People with autism and especially those with lower support needs are at higher risk of developing anxiety and depression,” Dr. Picci said. “We want to understand whether puberty might be a time that influences this additional risk.”
It’s something she says is discussed anecdotally among parents and those who provide services to people who are autistic, but there is a lack of scientific research about autism relating to this stage of life.
“We're really excited to be one of the first groups to study this from a biological perspective,” Dr. Picci said.
The study will collect brain imaging data, hormone measures and participant responses to questions about pubertal development and mental health.
The goal is to determine whether puberty is a particularly vulnerable time for developing mental health issues and identify what biological mechanisms might be involved. “Finally, we hope to inform future interventions that focus on supporting adolescents with autism,” Dr. Picci said.
Translating Science Into Care
Boys Town’s commitment to translational research and its Innovation Accelerator program, which provides internal funds to researchers who collaborate across research and hospital environments, played key roles in Dr. Picci’s successful grant application.
“This is a perfect example of how the Innovation Accelerator program and our commitment to translational research supports young investigators like Dr. Picci — and ultimately helps the families we care for at Boys Town and beyond,” said Dr. McCreery.
Dr. Picci pointed to her lab’s collaboration with Morgan Engelmann, Ph.D., a Boys Town National Research Hospital pediatric neuropsychologist. “Thanks to this relationship, we were already collecting data on this topic,” she said. “Because we had that support, we were able to put together a competitive application for this award.”
She hopes this study will fill a gap in knowledge in autism research, which has traditionally focused on early childhood.
“This is going to be one of the first big autism studies looking at brain development during puberty in a general sense,” Dr. Picci said. “Boys Town will be the place where that's happening, so that's very exciting.”
