Two faculty investigators at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology are authors on a paper named one of the six most interesting psychology papers of 2015 by The New Yorker.
The paper, published in PNAS in August 2015, describes research from the University of Michigan Medical School and the Pritzker Neuropsychiatric Disorders Research Consortium.
Richard Myers, PhD, president and science director at HudsonAlpha and a site director for the Pritzker Consortium, and Devin Absher, PhD, were part of the team of researchers who discovered that a protein important to embryonic development and cell differentiation appears to also play an important role in regulating emotions related to depression. The study revealed physical changes to depressed brains.
If the protein, known as fibroblast growth factor 9, proves to be a good target for drugs, the finding could lead to better treatments for depression.
The New Yorker said the discovery “offers new hope in an otherwise difficult landscape.”
Read more at The New Yorker.
