各位老师和同学：

大家好，2025年1月9日（星期四），化学生物学与生物技术学院邀请了鲁汶大学Markus Wöhr 教授到访我院并进行“Genes, brain, and behavior: Improving translational research models for human mental disorders through advanced behavioral phenotyping”的讲座，嘉宾简介请见附件，欢迎大家参加！

嘉    宾：Markus Wöhr 教授

单 位：鲁汶大学

主    题：Genes, brain, and behavior: Improving translational research models for human mental disorders through advanced behavioral phenotyping

时    间：2025年1月9日（星期四）10:00-11:30

地    点：F东101

讲座摘要：

There is a continued need for animal models to advance biomedical research. This includes a broad variety of research areas, ranging from virology and immunology to pharmacology and neuroscience. However, translational research is suffering from limitations and there is a need for improved animal models, most notably in the domain of human mental disorders and their treatment. Because the diagnostic criteria for mental disorders are still purely behaviorally defined, the validity of rodent models strongly relies on their behavioral phenotype. For this reason, deep and longitudinal behavioral phenotyping constitutes the principal component for current translational research. Traditionally, this approach was characterized by the application of a battery of highly standardized behavioral assays, such as open field, light-dark box, forced swim test, and others. However, such standard assays cannot capture the full complexity of the rich behavioral repertoire displayed by rodents, ranging from advanced cognitive capabilities to complex forms of social behavior, such as socio-affective communication through the emission of calls above the human hearing threshold, so-called ultrasonic vocalizations. In my talk, I will provide examples of the rich behavioral repertoire of rodents and show how socio-affective communication through ultrasonic vocalizations can be used to assess behavioral alterations with relevance to human mental disorders, most notably autism. Because of the important role of genetic factors in autism, I will focus on genetic rodent models and relevant neurobiological mechanisms, such as post-transcriptional gene expression regulation through microRNAs. I will argue that advanced behavioral phenotyping can make a significant contribution to the improvement of translational research models for human mental disorders.

请注意：本次讲座算下学期生物方向学生补签！