May 15, 2013

PNAS paper published by Jun Li and colleagues, on circadian rhythm disruption in depression

"Every cell in our bodies runs on a 24-hour clock, tuned to the night-day, light-dark cycles that have ruled us since the dawn of humanity. The brain acts as timekeeper, keeping the cellular clock in sync with the outside world so that it can govern our appetites, sleep, moods and much more.

But new research shows that the clock may be broken in the brains of people with depression -- even at the level of the gene activity inside their brain cells.

It’s the first direct evidence of altered circadian rhythms in the brain of people with depression, and shows that they operate out of sync with the usual ingrained daily cycle. The findings, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, come from scientists from the University of Michigan Medical School and other institutions."

Jun Li, Ph.D.

Jun Li, Ph.D.

Professor of Human Genetics
Professor & Associate Chair for Research of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics
Faculty, Center for Statistical Genetics; Comprehensive Cancer Center
Member, Depression Center; Michigan Diabetes Research Center; Michigan Metabolomics & Obesity Center
Co-Director, Michigan Center for Single-Cell Genomic Data Analytics
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