Two NRU grants from Augustinus Foundation

Congratulations to professor Jens D. Mikkelsen and senior researcher Vibe G. Frøkjær who have today received two separate grants totalling DKK 900.000 from the Augustinus Foundation.

Jens has received DKK 500.000 for a project entitled 'Neuromolekylære og kognitive effekter af en human-specifik alpha7 nicotinerg acetylcholin receptor variant' which is aiming at characterizing the expression, regulation and function of the CHRFAM7A gene in the human brain, and which will be run by senior researcher Henrik B. Hansen.

Vibe has received DKK 400.000 for the project 'Affective and Social Processing in Healthy Controls and Patients with Major Depressive Disorder; Implications for Predicting Response to Antidepressant Drug Therapy'. This neuropsychological project has a threefold aim, namely (1) to establish a healthy Danish reference group for the EMOTICOM test battery, (2) to determine the predictive value of EMOTICOM test outcomes in response to a pharmacological intervention in MDD patients and to determine if treatment induced changes in EMOTICOM test outcomes differentiates responders from non-responders, and (3) to identify a set of EMOTICOM test outcomes that best serves as diagnostic tools for differentiating MDD patients from a healthy Danish reference group. The project is tightly linked to the NeuroPharm Work Package 1 project 'Treatment outcome in Major Depressive Disorder'.