Study on resilience mechanisms in the brain launched
Why do some people become mentally ill when exposed to stress while others do not? Which genetic factors underlie the processes that maintain our mental equilibrium? These are the two core questions being considered in the Gutenberg Brain Study and also, even more specifically, in the Mainz Resilience Project.
"The GBS is a pioneering interdisciplinary research project that combines genetics, epidemiology, and systemic neurosciences. With its help, we can continue to extend our activities in the translational sector and promote the work of the Research Center Translational Neurosciences," emphasized the Chief Scientific Officer of the Mainz University Medical Center, Professor Ulrich Förstermann.
The Mainz Resilience Project (MARP) is an example of a core GBS-associated project. For this project, young, healthy study subjects are being recruited who are in the specific and often difficult life phase of transition from school and adolescence to working life. In order to document their mental health and the stress factors to which they are exposed over time, the researchers will monitor the subjects for several years. They thus hope that they will be able to identify significant protection mechanisms in the brain and related characteristics as well as the mental abilities that provide for psychological resilience. The long-term objective is to develop effective prevention programs that will bring alleviation to individuals and reduce the associated economic and social costs.
The associated projects of the Gutenberg Brain Study that are investigating genetic imaging and neural resilience mechanisms are receiving third-party funding from the European Research Council and the Rhineland-Palatinate Trust for Innovation. In addition, the GBS is an integral component of several current applications that have been submitted to the German Research Foundation and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
The projects are, like the GBS, affiliated with the newly established German Resilience Center Mainz in which the Research Center Translational Neurosciences has combined all its resources in this field. The center's core objectives can be defined as 'Understanding, Prevention, Change.' Its main activities will be neurobiological research into resilience mechanisms, the development of evidence-based forms of intervention to increase resilience, and dialog with society as a whole in order to put in place policies that will provide for resilience-enhancing lifestyle and environmental strategies. The Director of the German Resilience Center Mainz is Professor Robert Nitsch, Coordinator of the Research Center Translational Neuroscience and Director of the Institute of Microscopic Anatomy and Neurobiology of the Mainz University Medical Center. Professor Klaus Lieb, Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the Mainz University Medical Center, is the center's Vice Director.
More information:
www.ftn.cic.uni-mainz.de/gbs-g … enberg-brain-study-2
Provided by Universitaet Mainz