A cross-species analysis of the relationships between neuroinflammation and reward-based behaviour
Supervisors:
Prof Jonathan Cavanagh, School of Infection & Immunity
Prof Julia Cordero, School of Cancer Sciences
Prof Pat Monaghan, School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine
Summary:
This project provides an opportunity to work across three active research groups and across three species – fly, mouse and bird. This is an exciting challenge that will address the question of whether brain-based responses to stress are conserved across species. Such conservation would increase the likelihood of similar conservation in the human brain. Stress in the human brain is much more difficult to assess given the inaccessibility of the organ, thus findings in other species might facilitate translational interpretations.
The specific hypothesis under investigation relates to the putative increase in glutamate in the context of stress and the effects this might have on neural functioning and, ultimately, on behavior. Such molecular mechanisms have the advantage of therapeutic tractability and open the possibilities of developing and testing novel interventions that might be of use in serious mental illness – an area of significant unmet clinical need.