Wake Forest University School of Medicine has been awarded a $300,000 grant from The Whitehall Foundation to support research for predicting stress-related disorders. This three-year grant will build on existing research to help improve diagnosis, prevention and treatment.
Stress is a key driver of mental health disorders, which affect more than 50 million adults in the U.S., yet only around 40% are successfully treated, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Samuel W. Centanni, assistant professor of translational neuroscience at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, will build upon his previous research to help identify changes that occur in the brain and body while experiencing stress, which help predict if someone may develop stress-related disorders before they arise. This project will offer a new understanding of the brain’s pathways that are engaged by stress. Centanni said this work is timely, as the COVID-19 pandemic led to a sharp increase in stress disorder prevalence, a trend that is expected to continue to rise at alarming rates in the coming years.
“Our innovative approach will use preclinical models to isolate, characterize and manipulate unique circuit and genetic signatures of stress,” Centanni said. “Identifying which specific circuits in the brain are active during a mild stressor will allow us to capture an individual’s basal stress response. Understanding this baseline response has the potential to help predict affective disorder vulnerability and improve the precision of interventional strategies.”
This work will serve as the foundation for more comprehensive pharmacological, behavioral and translational neuroimaging studies on stress response. This is a vital step toward rapidly diagnosing dysfunctional brain circuitry in affective disorder patients or those at risk.
"We are grateful for the support of the Whitehall Foundation to assist in innovative areas of basic biological research,” said Lisa Marshall, chief philanthropy officer and vice president at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and Wake Forest University School of Medicine. “This continues to support our ongoing mission of research, education and clinical care and ultimately the best care for our patients.”
For more information and to support ongoing research at Wake Forest University School of Medicine visit giving.wakehealth.edu/ENVISION.
Media contacts:
Joe McCloskey, jmcclosk@wakehealth.edu; Jenna Kurzyna, jkurzyna@wakehealth.edu