We are happy to share that the Research Council of Rigshospitalet has decided to grant to Martin Prener a 3-year PhD-stipend for his project 'Large Language Models for Electronic Health Record Analysis: Real-World Outcomes of Anti-Seizure Medications in Epilepsy' as well as a 1-year introduction stipend to Professor Vibe G. Frøkjær and Victoria Garre for Victoria's project 'Maternal social cognition and infant development: Early findings from an existing longitudinal cohort with mothers at high risk of perinatal depression and their children'.
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Congratulations to post docs Kristian Reveles Jensen and Silvia Elisabetta Portis Bruzzone who have received each a research grant worth 600.000 DKK from the Research Fund of the Capital Region of Denmark. Kristian's project is entitled 'Precision psychiatry for women and men: Integrating EEG biomarkers with hormonal information to predict antidepressant effects and side effects' while the title of Silvia's project is 'Identifying functional genomic markers of postpartum depression to advance precision medicine in women’s mental health'.
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Congratulations to post doc Søren Vinther Larsen for being granted 5.154.467 DKK from DFF for a 5-year research project entitled 'Neuroendocrine and Neuroimmune Effects of Combined Oral Contraceptives: Mechanistic Implications for Antidepressant Treatment Effects' and 597.087 DKK from the Research Fund of the Capital Region of Denmark for a 4-year project entitled 'Reproductive mental health: Optimizing treatment of depression in women using oral contraceptive'.
Combined oral contraceptive (COC) use has been linked to increased risk of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), but underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Emerging evidence suggests COCs alter brain serotonin systems and may affect endocrine and immune pathways involved in some MDD cases. This raises the possibility that women with MDD using COCs represent a distinct biological subgroup who may benefit from specific treatment strategies. As first-line antidepressant treatment (SSRIs) is only effective in about half of MDD patients, identifying such subgroups is crucial. Since 40% of young women use COC, they represent a highly relevant subgroup.
Across the two projects we will investiagte reversible biological effects of oral contraceptive use in both healthy women and women with depression. In doing so, we will study whether oral contraceptive cessation benefits antidepressant treatment and potential underlying mechanisms. The goal is to contribute to a more personalized and effective intervention for women with depression.
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The NRU Christmas Symposium 2025 will take place on Friday, Nov. 28th from 9:00 to 15:30 in the RH Auditorium 2. The program is available here.
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We are happy to announce that senior researcher Anjali Sankar has been granted 3.818.232 DKK from DFF for a 3-year (Aug 1, 2026 - July 31, 2029) research project entitled 'Serotonin 4 Receptor Agonism and Neuroplasticity: A Novel Approach to Cognitive and Antidepressant Treatment in Major Depression'.
Project summary: Depression is a leading cause of disability, and SSRIs often take several weeks to act and fail to address cognitive symptoms, which are key to recovery. This study builds on two key findings: (1) hippocampal neuroplasticity is a core mechanism underlying improvements in both cognition and mood, and (2) stimulation of the serotonin 4 receptor (5-HT₄R) yields rapid pro-cognitive and antidepressants effects. We will investigate whether prucalopride, a 5-HT₄R agonist, when combined with SSRI treatment, enhances neuroplasticity more quickly than SSRIs alone in patients, and whether these changes are linked to improvements in cognition, mood, and underlying brain network function. As impairments in neuroplasticity and cognition are linked to elevated suicide risk, we will also explore whether their enhancement corresponds to reductions in suicidal ideation. The study advances mechanistic understanding of treatment effects and represents a meaningful step toward precision psychiatry.
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Professor Vibe G. Frøkjær has been granted 5.153.161 DKK from DFF for a 5-year (July 1, 2026 - June 30, 2031) research project entitled 'How hormonal intrauterine systems affect the female brain'. Congratulations to Vibe!
Project summary: The identification of adverse mental health effects of hormonal contraceptives motivates us to detect underlying mechanisms, to ultimately inform personalized contraception, which is safe for all. Even though hormonal intra-uterine systems (H-IUS) are highly popular alternatives to combined oral contraceptives, they come with a higher dose-dependent risk for adverse mood effects. Nevertheless, we completely lack data on H-IUS brain signatures, which can explain such adverse effects. In a longitudinal, within subject study in 50 healthy women, we will determine if a key brain receptor (serotonin 4 receptor) known to be implicated in cognition and mood, and to be reduced in combined oral contraceptive users, is also affected by starting a H-IUS. Further we will evaluate other plausible links between H-IUS and risk for mood symptoms, i.e. neuroplasticity markers, cortisol dynamics, and inflammatory status. We anticipate to identify mechanisms critical for hormone-related brain health.
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NRU PhD student Sif Olsen was awarded 1st prize for Best Poster at the Annual Psychiatric Research Day, held on September 10th, 2025, at Rigshospitalet. Her winning poster was entitled “Emotion processing bias and cerebral 5-HT1B receptor binding in violent offenders with psychopathic traits” examining data from the Aggression cohort. The prize was 5000 DKK.
Congratulations to Sif!
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Friday June 20, the Kirsten and Freddy Johansen Foundation presented its two annual prizes for preclinical and clinical research at the Univ. Copenhagen Ceremonial Hall.
We are proud to announce that Prof. Gitte Moos Knudsen is the recipient of this year's prestigious clinical award. The award comes with a prize of 1.75 million DKK, where 250.000 DKK is personal and the rest is for research.
The two award winners were celebrated at a festive event in the Ceremonial Hall at Frue Plads, where Dean Bente Merete Stallknecht participated, together with representatives and board members from the Kirsten and Freddy Johansen Foundation, as well as previous award recipients.
On receiving the clinical award, Gitte Moos Knudsen says:
"The award is a huge recognition of the research that my research group and I have carried out over a number of years, as well as for my organisations, Rigshospitalet and the University of Copenhagen, as well as the many foundations that have supported my research over the years. Personally, it is a special joy for me and my family and a recognition of how much of one's time it takes to conduct research at a high level."
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Kristian Larsen has received 250.000 DKK from Desirée and Niels Ydes Foundation to partly cover his salary in the project 'LSD treatment effects on cognitive brain function in depression'.
The LSD projectapplies human brain imaging to understand how LSD affects brain function in patients with depression, focusing on working memory, the mental ability to temporarily hold and manipulate information. This cognitive function is often impaired in depression, so determining how LSD affects these brain processes helps to reveal the brain pathways supporting this promising treatment.
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Congratulations to Gitte Moos Knudsen who has received 4.432.749 DKK in support from DFF for the project 'Sleep, brain oscillations, and brain microstructure in mild traumatic brain injury'.
The project will be initiated August 1, 2025 and will last 4 years.
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- Søren Vinther Larsen has been awarded "Affekten"
- NRU annual report 2024
- Grant from Toyota-Fonden for powerful GPU server
- NRU at the Danish Society of Psychiatry annual meeting 2025
- Poster award for Clara Madsen at NeuroGrad Winter School 2025
- Large Lundbeck Foundation collaborative grant to Melanie Ganz-Benjaminsen
- Grants from Læge Sofus Carl Emil Friis og hustru Olga Doris Friis Legat
- New grant support to NRU research
- New PhD stipend from RHP
- New one-year research stipend from RH