Dr. Henn's laboratory is interested in the role of neurogenesis in the hippocampus as it relates to major depressive disorder. The lab is looking at animal models of depression and assessing the role of neurogenesis in altering depressive behavior. Henn's team has found that changes in neurogenesis can be dissociated from depressive behavior, suggesting neurogenesis is not etiologically important in this disorder. To prove this in the human model we have developed, with colleagues at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Stony Brook School of Medicine, a method to measure neurogenesis in vivo in patients which will facilitate direct answers to this question.
Vollmayr B, Mahlstedt MM, Henn FA. Neurogenesis and depression: what animal models tell us about the link. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2007 Aug;257(5):300-3. Review.
Zink M, Vollmayr B, Gebicke-Haerter PJ, Henn FA, Thome J. Reduced expression of complexins I and II in rats bred for learned helplessness.
Brain Res. 2007 May 4;1144:202-8. Epub 2007 Jan 26.
Vollmayr B, Simonis C, Weber S, Gass P, Henn FA. (2006). Reduced cell proliferation in the dentate gyrus is not correlated with the development of learned helplessness. Biological Psychiatry 54:1035-1040.