The role of epigenetic processes in mediating the molecular and behavioural responses to stress in the dentate gyrus

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Stress is part of everybody's daily life. We need to respond appropriately to stressful events and normally we learn from them to cope better the next time they are imposed on us. These learning and adaptation processes take place in the brain. These processes must work properly as improper functioning can cause illness such as depression and anxiety. However, we currently do not fully know how the healthy brain learns from stressful events. We have recently discovered that after stress certain molecular processes ('epigenetic modifications') occur in the nucleus of nerve cells which we think are crucial for the expression of certain genes necessary for the adaptation of these cells to a stressful event. Our proposal aims to identify those epigenetic modifications and the genes affected by these modifications. Collection of this information is crucial in order to gain insight into how nerve cells 'learn' from stressful events. Insight into these processes and the function of the genes involved will help to develop new drugs for the treatment of major depression and anxiety disorders that currently burden many people in our society.