New strategy for antidepressant therapies: Increasing the activity of the neurotransmitter GABA in the brains of depressed mice has antidepressant effects
Microscope images of SST+ interneurons from a control brain (left) and a mutant brain with the GABA receptor disabled (right). The cells are stained with fluorescent dyes labeling the GABA receptor (green), an associated scaffolding protein (red), and the cell body (blue). Loss of green and red staining in the mutant indicates the loss of GABA inhibition in these cells, which leads to antidepressant activity. Credit: Lüscher laboratory, Penn State University.
Three Alumni Honored with Penn State's Outstanding Science Alumni Award
Sensory response to environmental stimuli modulated by form of vitamin B3 in worms
An adult Caenorhabditis elegans worm. A form of vitamin B3, nicotinamide, modulates the worm's sensory response to environmental stimuli. Credit: Kbradnam, https://creativecommons.org/licnses/by-sa/2.5/
RNA, gravitational waves focus of two new grants
New clues could help scientists harness the power of photosynthesis
Model of the newly-identified clorophyll f synthase enzyme that converts chlorophyll a into chlorophyll f. The model is based on the known structure of the Photosystem II reaction center -- a core unit of the machinery of photosynthesis to which the enzyme is related. The bright green molecules near the bottom of the structure represent chlorophyll a molecules that would be modified in light to produce chlorophyll f. Credit: Bryant lab, Penn State University
Discovered: How to unlock inaccessible genes
This image shows the binding profile of chromatin remodelers on 12,000 distinct genes. The researchers used bioinformatics tools to visualize a great number of genes, here aligned by their promoters and arranged according to their nucleosome distribution. Credit: Matthieu Gérard, University of Paris-Sud
Penn State, TB Alliance, and GSK Partner to Discover New Treatment Options for Tuberculosis
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Kenneth Keiler and biochemistry, microbiology, and molecular biology graduate student Farina Haque work in Keiler's lab.
Alumni Fellow: Stephen Miller
Stephen Miller
New targets for vaccines identified on the surface of the malaria parasite
A female Anopheles mosquito feeding on a human host and engorged with blood. Credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
How depression and antidepressant drugs work: New insight from depressed mice helps researchers unite two hypotheses
Mutations in the GABA-A receptor cause a temporary imbalance between GABA signaling (yellow) and glutamate signaling (blue) in the brain. Homeostatic down regulation of glutamate signaling rebalances the system at a lower level and can lead to depression. Treatment with ketamine restores both GABA and glutamate levels to normal. CREDIT: Penn State University.
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