Medical College of Wisconsin
CTSIResearch InformaticsREDCap

CURRICULUM VITAE

David Baranger PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology

OFFICE ADDRESS:
8701 Watertown Plank Road
Milwaukee, WI 53226
Phone: +1 (414) 9558145
Email: dbaranger@mcw.edu

FACULTY APPOINTMENTS:
07/01/2025 - Present Assistant Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI 53226

RESEARCH GRANTS/AWARDS/CONTRACTS/PROJECTS:
Active
Peer Review
Title:
R00: Reciprocal longitudinal associations between brain function and alcohol use trajectories in adolescents and young adults
Source:
NIAAA
Role & Effort:
PI, 40%
PI:
Dr. David Baranger
Dates:
09/01/2025 - 08/31/2028
Direct Funds:
$125,000
  

SOFTWARE:
InteractionPoweR - https://dbaranger.github.io/InteractionPoweR/


BIBLIOGRAPHY
Refereed Journal Publications/Original Papers
1. Addicott MA, Baranger DA, Kozink RV, Smoski MJ, Dichter GS, McClernon FJ. Smoking withdrawal is associated with increases in brain activation during decision making and reward anticipation: a preliminary study. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2012 Jan;219(2):563-73. PMCID: PMC4140396
2. Callicott JH, Feighery EL, Mattay VS, White MG, Chen Q, Baranger DA, Berman KF, Lu B, Song H, Ming GL, Weinberger DR. DISC1 and SLC12A2 interaction affects human hippocampal function and connectivity. J Clin Invest. 2013 Jul;123(7):2961-4. PMCID: PMC3999052
3. Corral-Frías NS, Nikolova YS, Michalski LJ, Baranger DA, Hariri AR, Bogdan R. Stress-related anhedonia is associated with ventral striatum reactivity to reward and transdiagnostic psychiatric symptomatology. Psychol Med. 2015;45(12):2605-17. PMCID: PMC4700837
4. Arnedo J, Mamah D, Baranger DA, Harms MP, Barch DM, Svrakic DM, de Erausquin GA, Cloninger CR, Zwir I. Decomposition of brain diffusion imaging data uncovers latent schizophrenias with distinct patterns of white matter anisotropy. Neuroimage. 2015 Oct 15;120:43-54.
5. Bogdan R, Pagliaccio D, Baranger DA, Hariri AR. Genetic Moderation of Stress Effects on Corticolimbic Circuitry. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2016 Jan;41(1):275-96. PMCID: PMC4677127
6. Baranger DA, Ifrah C, Prather AA, Carey CE, Corral-Frías NS, Drabant Conley E, Hariri AR, Bogdan R. PER1 rs3027172 Genotype Interacts with Early Life Stress to Predict Problematic Alcohol Use, but Not Reward-Related Ventral Striatum Activity. Front Psychol. 2016;7:464. PMCID: PMC4814479
7. Baranger DAA, Margolis S, Hariri AR, Bogdan R. An earlier time of scan is associated with greater threat-related amygdala reactivity. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2017 Aug 01;12(8):1272-1283. PMCID: PMC5597858
8. Michalski LJ, Demers CH, Baranger DAA, Barch DM, Harms MP, Burgess GC, Bogdan R. Perceived stress is associated with increased rostral middle frontal gyrus cortical thickness: a family-based and discordant-sibling investigation. Genes Brain Behav. 2017 Nov;16(8):781-789. PMCID: PMC5677535
9. Agrawal A, Chou YL, Carey CE, Baranger DAA, Zhang B, Sherva R, Wetherill L, Kapoor M, Wang JC, Bertelsen S, Anokhin AP, Hesselbrock V, Kramer J, Lynskey MT, Meyers JL, Nurnberger JI, Rice JP, Tischfield J, Bierut LJ, Degenhardt L, Farrer LA, Gelernter J, Hariri AR, Heath AC, Kranzler HR, Madden PAF, Martin NG, Montgomery GW, Porjesz B, Wang T, Whitfield JB, Edenberg HJ, Foroud T, Goate AM, Bogdan R, Nelson EC. Genome-wide association study identifies a novel locus for cannabis dependence. Mol Psychiatry. 2018 May;23(5):1293-1302. PMCID: PMC5938138
10. Bogdan R, Baranger DAA, Agrawal A. Polygenic Risk Scores in Clinical Psychology: Bridging Genomic Risk to Individual Differences. Annu Rev Clin Psychol. 2018 May 07;14:119-157. PMCID: PMC7772939
11. Sheahan TD, Valtcheva MV, McIlvried LA, Pullen MY, Baranger DAA, Gereau RW 4th. Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor 2/3 (mGluR2/3) Activation Suppresses TRPV1 Sensitization in Mouse, But Not Human, Sensory Neurons. eNeuro. 2018;5(2). PMCID: PMC5898698
12. Karcher NR, Barch DM, Demers CH, Baranger DAA, Heath AC, Lynskey MT, Agrawal A. Genetic Predisposition vs Individual-Specific Processes in the Association Between Psychotic-like Experiences and Cannabis Use. JAMA Psychiatry. 2019 Jan 01;76(1):87-94. PMCID: PMC6400636
13. Baranger DAA, Bogdan R. Editorial: Causal, Predispositional, or Correlate? Group Differences in Cognitive Control-Related Brain Function in Cannabis-Using Youth Raise New Questions. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2019 Jul;58(7):665-667.
14. Baranger DAA, Demers CH, Elsayed NM, Knodt AR, Radtke SR, Desmarais A, Few LR, Agrawal A, Heath AC, Barch DM, Squeglia LM, Williamson DE, Hariri AR, Bogdan R. Convergent Evidence for Predispositional Effects of Brain Gray Matter Volume on Alcohol Consumption. Biol Psychiatry. 2020 Apr 01;87(7):645-655. PMCID: PMC7412715
15. Baranger DAA, Few LR, Sheinbein DH, Agrawal A, Oltmanns TF, Knodt AR, Barch DM, Hariri AR, Bogdan R. Borderline Personality Traits Are Not Correlated With Brain Structure in Two Large Samples. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2020 Jul;5(7):669-677. PMCID: PMC7360105
16. Johnson EC, Demontis D, Thorgeirsson TE, Walters RK, Polimanti R, Hatoum AS, Sanchez-Roige S, Paul SE, Wendt FR, Clarke TK, Lai D, Reginsson GW, Zhou H, He J, Baranger DAA, Gudbjartsson DF, Wedow R, Adkins DE, Adkins AE, Alexander J, Bacanu SA, Bigdeli TB, Boden J, Brown SA, Bucholz KK, Bybjerg-Grauholm J, Corley RP, Degenhardt L, Dick DM, Domingue BW, Fox L, Goate AM, Gordon SD, Hack LM, Hancock DB, Hartz SM, Hickie IB, Hougaard DM, Krauter K, Lind PA, McClintick JN, McQueen MB, Meyers JL, Montgomery GW, Mors O, Mortensen PB, Nordentoft M, Pearson JF, Peterson RE, Reynolds MD, Rice JP, Runarsdottir V, Saccone NL, Sherva R, Silberg JL, Tarter RE, Tyrfingsson T, Wall TL, Webb BT, Werge T, Wetherill L, Wright MJ, Zellers S, Adams MJ, Bierut LJ, Boardman JD, Copeland WE, Farrer LA, Foroud TM, Gillespie NA, Grucza RA, Harris KM, Heath AC, Hesselbrock V, Hewitt JK, Hopfer CJ, Horwood J, Iacono WG, Johnson EO, Kendler KS, Kennedy MA, Kranzler HR, Madden PAF, Maes HH, Maher BS, Martin NG, McGue M, McIntosh AM, Medland SE, Nelson EC, Porjesz B, Riley BP, Stallings MC, Vanyukov MM, Vrieze S, Psychiatric Genomics Consortium Substance Use Disorders Workgroup, Davis LK, Bogdan R, Gelernter J, Edenberg HJ, Stefansson K, Børglum AD, Agrawal A. A large-scale genome-wide association study meta-analysis of cannabis use disorder. Lancet Psychiatry. 2020 Dec;7(12):1032-1045. PMCID: PMC7674631
17. Bondy E, Baranger DAA, Balbona J, Sputo K, Paul SE, Oltmanns TF, Bogdan R. Neuroticism and reward-related ventral striatum activity: Probing vulnerability to stress-related depression. J Abnorm Psychol. 2021 Apr;130(3):223-235. PMCID: PMC8110089
18. Baranger DAA, Lindenmuth M, Nance M, Guyer AE, Keenan K, Hipwell AE, Shaw DS, Forbes EE. The longitudinal stability of fMRI activation during reward processing in adolescents and young adults. Neuroimage. 2021 May 15;232:117872. PMCID: PMC8238413
19. Hatoum AS, Johnson EC, Baranger DAA, Paul SE, Agrawal A, Bogdan R. Polygenic risk scores for alcohol involvement relate to brain structure in substance-naïve children: Results from the ABCD study. Genes Brain Behav. 2021 Jun 06:e12756. PMCID: PMC8645657
20. Karcher NR, Paul SE, Johnson EC, Hatoum AS, Baranger DAA, Agrawal A, Thompson WK, Barch DM, Bogdan R. Psychotic-like Experiences and Polygenic Liability in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2022 Jan;7(1):45-55. PMCID: PMC8786267
21. Baranger DAA, Halchenko YO, Satz S, Ragozzino R, Iyengar S, Swartz HA, Manelis A. Aberrant levels of cortical myelin distinguish individuals with depressive disorders from healthy controls. Neuroimage Clin. 2021;32:102790. PMCID: PMC8406024
22. Baranger DAA, Halchenko YO, Satz S, Ragozzino R, Iyengar S, Swartz HA, Manelis A. Protocol for a machine learning algorithm predicting depressive disorders using the T1w/T2w ratio. MethodsX. 2021;8:101595. PMCID: PMC8720909
23. Vize CE, Baranger DAA, Finsaas MC, Goldstein BL, Olino TM, Lynam DR. Moderation effects in personality disorder research. Personal Disord. 2023 Jan;14(1):118-126. PMCID: PMC9990702
24. Baranger DAA, Paul SE, Colbert SMC, Karcher NR, Johnson EC, Hatoum AS, Bogdan R. Association of Mental Health Burden With Prenatal Cannabis Exposure From Childhood to Early Adolescence: Longitudinal Findings From the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. JAMA Pediatr. 2022 Dec 01;176(12):1261-1265. PMCID: PMC9468940
25. Johnson EC, Paul SE, Baranger DAA, Hatoum AS, Colbert SMC, Lin S, Wolff R, Gorelik AJ, Hansen I, Karcher NR, Bogdan R, Agrawal A. Characterizing Alcohol Expectancies in the ABCD Study: Associations with Sociodemographic Factors, the Immediate Social Environment, and Genetic Propensities. Behav Genet. 2023 May;53(3):265-278. PMCID: PMC10159951
26. Paul SE, Colbert SMC, Gorelik AJ, Hansen IS, Nagella I, Blaydon L, Hornstein A, Johnson EC, Hatoum AS, Baranger DAA, Elsayed NM, Barch DM, Bogdan R, Karcher NR. Phenome-wide Investigation of Behavioral, Environmental, and Neural Associations with Cross-Disorder Genetic Liability in Youth of European Ancestry. medRxiv. 2023 Feb 14. PMCID: PMC9949197
27. Baranger DAA, Hatoum AS, Polimanti R, Gelernter J, Edenberg HJ, Bogdan R, Agrawal A. Multi-omics cannot replace sample size in genome-wide association studies. Genes Brain Behav. 2023 Dec;22(6):e12846. PMCID: PMC10733567
28. Gorelik AJ, Paul SE, Karcher NR, Johnson EC, Nagella I, Blaydon L, Modi H, Hansen IS, Colbert SMC, Baranger DAA, Norton SA, Spears I, Gordon B, Zhang W, Hill PL, Oltmanns TF, Bijsterbosch JD, Agrawal A, Hatoum AS, Bogdan R. A Phenome-Wide Association Study (PheWAS) of Late Onset Alzheimer Disease Genetic Risk in Children of European Ancestry at Middle Childhood: Results from the ABCD Study. Behav Genet. 2023 May;53(3):249-264. PMCID: PMC10309061
29. Hatoum AS, Colbert SMC, Johnson EC, Huggett SB, Deak JD, Pathak G, Jennings MV, Paul SE, Karcher NR, Hansen I, Baranger DAA, Edwards A, Grotzinger A, Substance Use Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, Tucker-Drob EM, Kranzler HR, Davis LK, Sanchez-Roige S, Polimanti R, Gelernter J, Edenberg HJ, Bogdan R, Agrawal A. Multivariate genome-wide association meta-analysis of over 1 million subjects identifies loci underlying multiple substance use disorders. Nat Ment Health. 2023 Mar;1(3):210-223. PMCID: PMC10217792
30. Miller AP, Baranger DAA, Paul SE, Hatoum AS, Rogers C, Bogdan R, Agrawal A. Characteristics Associated With Cannabis Use Initiation by Late Childhood and Early Adolescence in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. JAMA Pediatr. 2023 Aug 01;177(8):861-863. PMCID: PMC10294012
31. Baranger DAA, Finsaas MC, Goldstein BL, Vize CE, Lynam DR, Olino TM. Tutorial: Power analyses for interaction effects in cross-sectional regressions. Adv Methods Pract Psychol Sci. 2023;6(3). PMCID: PMC12341451
32. Norton SA, Baranger DA, Young ES, Voss M, Hansen I, Bondy E, Rodrigues M, Paul SE, Edershile E, Hill PL, Oltmanns TF, Simpson J, Bogdan R. Reliability of diurnal salivary cortisol metrics: A meta-analysis and investigation in two independent samples. Compr Psychoneuroendocrinol. 2023 Nov;16:100191. PMCID: PMC10458689
33. Baranger DAA, Paul SE, Hatoum AS, Bogdan R. Alcohol use and grey matter structure: Disentangling predispositional and causal contributions in human studies. Addict Biol. 2023 Sep;28(9):e13327. PMCID: PMC10502907
34. Sheahan TD, Warwick CA, Cui AY, Baranger DAA, Perry VJ, Smith KM, Manalo AP, Nguyen EK, Koerber HR, Ross SE. Identification of a convergent spinal neuron population that encodes itch. bioRxiv. 2023 Nov 08. PMCID: PMC10592866
35. Baranger DAA. Evaluating Evidence Supporting an Effect of Prenatal Cannabis Exposure on White Matter Integrity. Biol Psychiatry Glob Open Sci. 2024 Jan;4(1):101-102. PMCID: PMC10829662
36. Paul SE, Baranger DAA, Johnson EC, Jackson JJ, Gorelik AJ, Miller AP, Hatoum AS, Thompson WK, Strube M, Dick DM, Kamarajan C, Kramer JR, Plawecki MH, Chan G, Anokhin AP, Chorlian DB, Kinreich S, Meyers JL, Porjesz B, Edenberg HJ, Agrawal A, Bucholz KK, Bogdan R. Alcohol milestones and internalizing, externalizing, and executive function: longitudinal and polygenic score associations. Psychol Med. 2024 Jul;54(10):2644-2657. PMCID: PMC11464200
37. Johnson EC, Austin-Zimmerman I, Thorpe HHA, Levey DF, Baranger DAA, Colbert SMC, Demontis D, Khokhar JY, Davis LK, Edenberg HJ, Di Forti M, Sanchez-Roige S, Gelernter J, Agrawal A. Cross-ancestry genetic investigation of schizophrenia, cannabis use disorder, and tobacco smoking. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2024 Oct;49(11):1655-1665. PMCID: PMC11399264
38. Sheahan TD, Warwick CA, Cui AY, Baranger DAA, Perry VJ, Smith KM, Manalo AP, Nguyen EK, Koerber HR, Ross SE. Kappa opioids inhibit spinal output neurons to suppress itch. Sci Adv. 2024 Sep 27;10(39):eadp6038. PMCID: PMC11423883
39. Gorelik AJ, Paul SE, Miller AP, Baranger DAA, Lin S, Zhang W, Elsayed NM, Modi H, Addala P, Bijsterbosch J, Barch DM, Karcher NR, Hatoum AS, Agrawal A, Bogdan R, Johnson EC. Associations between polygenic scores for cognitive and non-cognitive factors of educational attainment and measures of behavior, psychopathology, and neuroimaging in the adolescent brain cognitive development study. Psychol Med. 2024 Oct;54(13):3737-3751. PMCID: PMC11536102
40. Paul SE, Colbert SMC, Gorelik AJ, Johnson EC, Hatoum AS, Baranger DAA, Hansen IS, Nagella I, Blaydon L, Hornstein A, Elsayed NM, Barch DM, Bogdan R, Karcher NR. A phenome-wide association study of cross-disorder genetic liability in youth genetically similar to individuals from European reference populations Nature Mental Health. November 2024;2(11):1327-1341.
41. Modi H, Baranger DAA, Paul SE, Gorelik AJ, Hornstein A, Balbona JV, Agrawal A, Bijsterbosch JD, Bogdan R. Associations between prenatal caffeine exposure and child development: Longitudinal results from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Neurotoxicol Teratol. 2025;107:107404. PMCID: PMC12226004
42. Miller AP, Baranger DAA, Paul SE, Garavan H, Mackey S, Tapert SF, LeBlanc KH, Agrawal A, Bogdan R. Neuroanatomical Variability and Substance Use Initiation in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Dec 02;7(12):e2452027. PMCID: PMC11686416
43. Baranger DA, Gorelik AJ, Paul SE, Hatoum AS, Dosenbach N, Bogdan R. Enhancing task fMRI individual difference research with neural signatures. medRxiv. 2025 Jan 31. PMCID: PMC11838658
44. Norton SA, Gorelik AJ, Paul SE, Johnson EC, Baranger DA, Siudzinski JL, Li ZA, Bondy E, Modi H, Karcher NR, Hershey T, Hatoum AS, Agrawal A, Bogdan R. A Phenome-Wide association study (PheWAS) of genetic risk for C-reactive protein in children of European Ancestry: Results from the ABCD study. Brain Behav Immun. 2025 Aug;128:487-496. PMCID: PMC12264583
45. Hatoum AS, Gorelik AJ, Blaydon L, Huggett SB, Chi T, Baranger DAA, Miller AP, Johnson EC, Agrawal A, Bogdan R. Psychiatric genome-wide association study enrichment shows promise for future psychopharmaceutical discoveries. Commun Med (Lond). 2025 May 16;5(1):176. PMCID: PMC12084526
46. Johnson EC, Lai D, Balbona JV, Miller AP, Hatoum AS, Deak JD, Jennings M, Baranger DAA, Galimberti M, Sanichwankul K, Thorgeirsson T, Colbert SMC, Adhikari K, Docherty AR, Degenhardt L, Edwards T, Fox L, Giannelis A, Jeffries PW, Korhonen T, Morrison CL, Nunez YZ, Palviainen T, Su MH, Romero Villela PN, Wetherill L, Willoughby EA, Zellers SM, Bierut LJ, Buchwald J, Copeland WE, Corley RP, Friedman NP, Foroud TM, Gillespie NA, Gizer IR, Heath AC, Hickie IB, Kaprio J, Keller MC, Lee JJ, Lind P, Madden PA, Maes HHM, Martin NG, McGue M, Medland SE, Nelson EC, Pearson J, Porjesz B, Stallings MC, Vrieze S, Wilhelmson KC, Kranzler HR, Walters RK, Polimanti R, Malison R, Zhou H, Stefansson K, Sanchez-Roige S, Potenza M, Mutirangura A, Shotelersuk V, Kalayasiri R, Edenberg HJ, Gelernter J, Agrawal A. Multi-ancestral genome-wide association study of clinically defined nicotine dependence reveals strong genetic correlations with other substance use disorders and health-related traits. Psychol Med. 2025 Aug 20;55:e234. PMCID: PMC12360691
47. Baranger DA, Miller AP, Gorelik AJ, Paul SE, Hatoum AS, Johnson EC, Colbert SM, Smyser CD, Rogers CE, Bijsterbosch JD, Agrawal A, Bogdan R. Prenatal cannabis exposure, the brain, and psychopathology during early adolescence. Nat Ment Health. 2024 Aug;2(8):975-986. PMCID: PMC12363474
48. Paul SE, Gorelik AJ, Karcher NR, Miller AP, Baranger DAA, Johnson EC, LeBlanc KH, Dowling G, Barch DM, Hatoum AS, Agrawal A, Bogdan R. Youth Correlates of Genetic Liability to Substance Use Disorders. medRxiv. 2025 Nov 25. PMCID: PMC12676401
49. Fernandez DA, Baranger DA. Brain Structure and Substance Use: Disentangling Risk, Exposure, and Drug-Specific Effects. medRxiv. 2026 Mar 23. PMCID: PMC13042120
50. Castillo A, Miller JD, Vize C, Baranger DAA, Lynam DR. When Do Interaction/Moderation Effects Stabilize in Linear Regression? Adv Methods Pract Psychol Sci. 2026;9(1). PMCID: PMC12975032
51. Karcher NR, Barch DM, Oh H, Paul SE, Osborne KJ, Baranger DA, Bogdan R, Agrawal A, Johnson EC. Disentangling Environmental and Genetic Influences on Associations Between Childhood Bullying Victimization and Psychotic-Like Experiences. medRxiv. 2026 Feb 05. PMCID: PMC12889863
52. Paul SE, Colbert SMC, Gorelik AJ, Johnson EC, Hatoum AS, Baranger DAA, Hansen IS, Nagella I, Blaydon L, Hornstein A, Elsayed NM, Barch DM, Bogdan R, Karcher NR. A phenome-wide association study of cross-disorder genetic liability in youth genetically similar to individuals from European reference populations. Nat Ment Health. 2024 Nov;2(11):1327-1341. PMCID: PMC12981648
53. Modi H, Baranger DA, Balbona J, Rincón SN, Gorelik AJ, Bogdan R, Bijsterbosch JD. Challenges and opportunities of gap score methods for studying psychopathology resilience and vulnerability. medRxiv. 2026 Jun 15. PMCID: PMC13308336
54. Whitman ET, Prather AA, Mutz J, Arseneault L, Baranger DAA, Elliott ML, Fisher HL, Ireland D, Knodt AR, Kositzke C, Leng Y, Reuben A, Sugden K, Williams BS, Xie JK, Yuan A, Moffitt TE, Caspi A, Hariri AR. Poor sleep is robustly correlated with accelerated aging but the evidence for causation is mixed. medRxiv. 2026 Jul 06. PMCID: PMC13370888