Mental Health

(SACRAMENTO) The Behavioral Health Center of Excellence (BHCOE) at UC Davis has awarded six 2022 pilot grants to advance mental health research.

Ask most people about the neurochemical origins of depression and you’ll likely hear how low serotonin levels are the cause. But today’s scientists know depression’s roots are more tangled and complex. One area of interest to them is the brain’s prefrontal cortex, a region responsible for motivational and goal-directed behavior. For those with depression, this region’s neurons are unhealthy, their connections, called synapses, withering like rotten roots.

Microdosing - taking tiny amounts of psychedelic drugs to boost mood and mental acuity - was found to provide relief for symptoms of depression and anxiety in a study with rats by CNS Affliate David Olson, assistant professor in the UC Davis departments of Chemistry and of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine.

The question came as a shock to Dorothy Reeves: Would she be willing to donate her husband's brain for research?

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Researchers have debuted two mouse models of autism made using the gene-editing tool CRISPR. Both strains lack one functional copy of CHD8, a gene with strong ties to autism.

CRISPR allows researchers to quickly and efficiently insert specific mutations into single-cell mouse embryos. Several teams have used the method to make mouse models for other conditions, including Rett syndrome, an autism-related condition. The new mice represent the first use of the method to make models expressly for autism.

Latinos are California’s fastest-growing ethnic group. They’re also among the most likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease. A new five-year study out of UC Davis will investigate why.

The study grew out of a $14.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. It will involve nine other universities and last for five years.

Rates of dementia in Latino adults are about 1.5 times higher than rates in white adults. They are slightly lower than the rates in the African American community.

A UC Davis neurology researcher will share the lead in a $14.7 million, multiyear study examining the causes of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia among Latinos in the United States, university officials announced Tuesday. The work is being funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Charles S. DeCarli, director of the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center, will serve as co-principal investigator along with Hector M. Gonzalez, an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Michigan State University. 

While the definitive causes remain unclear, several genetic and environmental factors increase the likelihood of autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, a group of conditions covering a “spectrum” of symptoms, skills and levels of disability.