1. Plasticity and Promise: A New Era in Brain Research and Psychiatry
Dolores Malaspina, MD, MSPH
Anita Steckler & Joseph Steckler Professor of Psychiatry
Institute for Social and Psychiatric Initiatives:
Research, Education and Services
NYU Langone Medical Center

2. Translational Neuroscience Research
Clinical Research
Epidemiology
Basic Science
Animal Models

3. Translational Research Example in Schizophrenia
Epidemiology Study
Animal Model
Mice with older sires have impaired learning
Jerusalem Birth Cohort
Clinical Research
NYU Challenge Grant-
Define the clinical features, brain changes and best treatment for this subtype
NIH funded Genetic Study in Israel
Psychiatric hospital patients in Jerusalem 3

4. Genetics  Epigenetics
Watson and Crick
1953
Epigenetic mechanisms:
- change gene expression without changing DNA sequence.
-transmit information to descendents to best adapt their physiology to the expected environment.
Lamarck 4

5. Epigenetic regulation of gene activity
Scenario ‘A’
Scenario ‘B’
messenger RNA
No message
large amounts of protein no
protein 5

6. History of the Population Postnatal Environment
Epigenetic effects: intergenerational influences, prenatal environment and life course potential for plasticity
Birth
Phenotype
Adult
Phenotype
Risk for
Disease
GENES
fetal programming
History of the Population
MATCH ?
Prenatal
Environment
Postnatal Environment
EPIGENETIC CHANGES
INTERGENERATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES

7. Brain cells are replenished throughout life in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus
Increased by
exercise
Decreased
by stress
The dentate is 10 times smaller than the width of a human hair
Imaging Neurogenesis?
We have imaged the dentate gyrus image using the NYU 7T MRI

8. They have the potential to made into stem cells
Neurogenesis also ongoing in brain olfactory regions
Olfactory bulb
Neurons from
scrapings at the top of the nose can be cultured and used for genetic study.
They have the potential to made into stem cells
Olfactory epithelium

9. In response to an earlier article : “Understanding the Anxious Mind”
Translating science to the public: letter to the editor:
NY Times Magazine October 18, 2009
…. Let us now reject the notion of “hard-wiring.”
New research shows the human brain’s remarkable ability to adapt to its environment, beginning in prenatal development and continuing throughout the life cycle.
The plasticity of the brain should provides life-course opportunities for resilience and enhanced mental health.
DOLORES MALASPINA, M.D., M.S.P.H. Professor of Psychiatry
Director of InSPIRES
NYU Langone Medical Center
In response to an earlier article : “Understanding the Anxious Mind”
By Robin Marantz Henig
NY Times Magazine
October 4, 2009