Motivational drive and reward are survival processes that underpin the maintenance of homeostasis. In humans, dysregulation of these brain circuits manifests in disorders such as depression and addictions. Our projects is focused on a key subgroup of neurons in the hypothalamus that modulates reward and motivation. We aim to understand how potent reward experience (e.g. drugs) or stress modifies these circuits and to identify potential entry points for therapeutic interventions.
The amygdala is a part of the brain that processes and lays down emotional memories. Dysfunction in the amygdala is responsible for anxiety related disorders such post-traumatic stress disorder. I will study the neural circuits in the amygdala using innovative recordings and stimulation techniques. These studies will provide insight into the circuits that underpin anxiety related neurological disorders and provide targets for development of novel anxiolytic agents.
Validating Novel Biomarkers Relevant To Major Depression
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$515,550.00
Summary
Depression prevention and treatment are public health priorities; therefore, it is critical to improve and personalise treatments, which can only be achieved by advancing knowledge of its underlying biology. This research project will contribute to validating potentially relevant genes for MDD risk or antidepressant response and to provide the scientific foundation for future strategies to test their products as MDD biomarkers in the clinical setting.
THE EFFECT OF STRESS AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENRICHMENT ON DISEASE PROGRESSION IN MESIAL TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$578,201.00
Summary
Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, the most common form of drug-resistant epilepsy in adults, is a progressive neurodegenerative condition for which there is currently no effective disease modifying treatment. This proposal will explore whether co-morbid stress accelerates disease progression in MTLE, and whether targeting stress pathways by medical and environmental manipulations can mitigate against this.
Optimising And Applying Ocular Vestibulat Evoked Myogenic Potentials (oVEMPs)
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$228,931.00
Summary
This project seeks to optimise techniques for a new method of assessing the balance organs (vestibular organs) and then apply these techniques. Three conditions will be studied: vestibular neuritis - a condition causing acute and severe dizziness; Parkinson's disease, in which disorders of balance are common and superior canal dehiscence (SCD) in which there is a hole in the bone overlying one of the semicircular canals, leading to sensitivity to sound.
Relaxin-3/RXFP3 Signalling And Regulation Of Affective Behaviour _ Studies In Normal/transgenic Mice
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$578,268.00
Summary
Mental illness is a significant social and economic burden worldwide and knowledge of the underlying causes and more effective therapies are required. Our research aims to use pre-clinical animal models to characterize a little studied brain neuronal network implicated in control of arousal and stress, which could lead to improved treatment of psychiatric disorders such as depression.
Neurobiology Of Relaxin-3/RXFP3 Systems: Anatomical And Functional Studies In Transgenic Mice
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$94,242.00
Summary
Mental illness is an economic and health burden worldwide, with huge costs in medical spending, lost productivity, poor quality of life for sufferers and mortality. Relaxin-3 is a peptide that acts widely within neural circuits to modulate brain activity that is altered in conditions such as anxiety and mood/sleep disorders. Our research assessing the effect of genetic removal of relaxin-3 signaling on behaviour will add to our knowledge of brain function and improve mental health outcomes.
Blood-brain Barrier And White Matter Damage In The Immature Rat Brain Following Systemic Inflammation
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$353,173.00
Summary
Clinical obstetric and paediatric studies have identified an association between intrauterine infection occurring around two thirds of the way through pregnancy, premature birth and a specific form of damage to the brain of the newborn. This damage mainly affects white matter tracts. These tracts are aggregations of nerve fibres that make the connections between different parts of the brain and may result in cerebral palsy or other neurological disorders. The association between maternal infecti ....Clinical obstetric and paediatric studies have identified an association between intrauterine infection occurring around two thirds of the way through pregnancy, premature birth and a specific form of damage to the brain of the newborn. This damage mainly affects white matter tracts. These tracts are aggregations of nerve fibres that make the connections between different parts of the brain and may result in cerebral palsy or other neurological disorders. The association between maternal infection and brain damage, one form of which is cerebral palsy, is well established from clinical epidemiological studies, but the biological mechanism of this link is unknown. The CIs' group has recently shown that the condition can be reproduced in neonatal rats at a stage of brain development in the rat that is equivalent to the critical time in human brain development when infection may be associated with brain damage. The CIs' group has shown that an induced inflammatory state similar to a bacterial infection, results in damage to blood vessels in the white matter and is associated with changes in white matter, as occurs in affected babies. The purpose of this study is to understand the nature of the damage to white matter blood vessels and the mechanisms by which materials in blood, which in the normal brain do not pass from the blood to the brain across the blood-brain barrier, are able to do so via the inflammation damaged blood vessels. The study also aims to show whether it is components of the blood entering the brain via the damaged blood vessels that are responsible for the damage to white matter in the immature brain. The outcome should lead to development of ways to improve clinical care of women who acquire infections during pregnancy.Read moreRead less