Depression

Depressive disorder involves changes in mood, thought and emotion and influences major aspects of daily life. It is one of the most common psychiatric disorders with a lifetime prevalence of ~20%. Current treatment strategies consist of medication, cognitive and behavioral therapy. None of these treatments can cure the disorder and most alleviate symptoms only in a subset of patients. Identifying underlying biological mechanisms of this disorder will aid in developing novel treatment and prevention strategies.
The iPS center depression project aims to collect iPS cell lines from depressed patients and healthy controls. iPS cells will be reprogrammed into neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, which will subsequently be screened using available functional assays that asses cell morphology as well as glial and synaptic function.