报告题目：Serotonin in Anxiety and Depression: Genetics and Predicting Treatment Response

报 告 人：Anne Milasincic Andrews

     Associate Editor, ACS Chemical Neuroscience

     Professor of Psychiatry，Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior &

     CaliforniaNanoSystems Institute, University ofCalifornia,Los Angeles(USA)

报告时间：2012年06月13日(星期三)下午03:30

报告地点：超分子楼二楼圆形报告厅

报告摘要：Depression and anxiety disorders affect about 20 percent of populations worldwide.  Despite research efforts, their underlying causes and the actions of the most widely prescribed medications are still not well understood.  Dr. Andrews will discuss evidence that genes and environmental factors interact to make some people more susceptible to major depressive and anxiety disorders.  She will also present new strategies for predicting personalized treatment response.

Andrews教授简介

Research Interests:

Andrews' research group is highly interdisciplinary and includes students with backgrounds in chemistry, neuroscience, biomedical sciences, physics, bioengineering, genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology, and medicine. Research is centered on understanding how the neurotransmitter serotonin modulates complex behaviors such as anxiety, stress responsiveness, and learning and memory. Human and nonhuman primate cell lines, genetically engineered mice, drugs, neurotoxins, and environmental factors are used to probe the molecular bases of serotonin system function and the mechanisms of drugs used to treat psychiatric disorders. Bioanalytical techniques, including microelectrode voltammetry and microdialysis are used to investigate serotonin neurotransmission. Neuronal architectures and the expression of key proteins, such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which are regulated by serotonin, are studied using autoradiography, immunocytochemistry, RT?qPCR, ELISA, and Western blotting. Neurotransmitter-functionalized self-assembled materials have been designed for fundamental studies on neurotransmitter recognition by native and nonnative biomolecule binding partners and for the development of novel in vivo nanobiosensors and functionally-directed proteomics.

Additional Background:

Andrews received her B.S. in Chemistry from thePennsylvaniaStateUniversity. She carried out her dissertation research under the direction of Dr. Dennis Murphy at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and was awarded her Ph.D. in Chemistry from theAmericanUniversity. She also attended the George Washington University, Sino-Soviet Institute for Russian Area Studies. Andrews was a United States Department of Education Fellow and an NIH Predoctoral Intramural Research Training Awardee. Andrews continued as a Postdoctoral IRTA Fellow and a Senior Staff Fellow at the NIMH. In 1998, she joined the faculty at thePennsylvaniaStateUniversityin the Departments of Chemistry and Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences and was affiliated with the Huck Institutes Neuroscience and Molecular Toxicology Programs. Andrews is an Eli Lilly Outstanding Analytical Chemist Awardee and the recipient of a NARSAD Independent Investigator Award, among others. She is a fellow of the Collegium Internationale Neuropsychopharmacologicum and a Serotonin Club councilor. Andrews serves on multiple review panels for the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke.