Project Summary

O. C. Meijer, Ph.D. (Young Investigator 2002) of Leiden University, is exploring the hypothesis that depression may develop if molecules involved in cortisol signaling are dysregulated.  Dr. Meijer will study the function and regulation of newly discovered molecules in the brain crucial for cortisol-signaling.  Recently, his lab has shown that a novel type of proteins called co-regulators are relevant for stress-regulation and probably depression.  He will examine the role of these co-regulators in hormone signaling, the regulation of co-regulator expression levels by stress and in animal models of depression, and the expression of the co-regulators in post mortem human brain samples of healthy and depressed individuals.  Dr. Meijer's work is focused on the identification of molecular targets which may lead to treatments for stress-related brain disorders such as depression.

Program Area: MOOD DISORDERS\Depression (Unipolar)

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