This blog has been created to disseminate and communicate the main activities related to the aMUST project in the context of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship call Horizon 2020 - the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2014-2020).
About the aMUST project
Abstract: Stress conditions threaten the organism’s homeostasis triggering adaptative responses. One of them is the increased energy demand from the brain. When stress becomes chronic, it leads to behavioural changes that range from adaptation to psychopathology. aMUST project aims to understand the neurobiological mechanisms underlying stress response. Considering that nowadays chronic stress is a risk factor for psychopathologies, such as anxiety and depression, with 25% of incidence in the population and an economical burden of €170 billion/year in EU, the aMUST project is extremely relevant and timely. Mitochondria and bioenergetics are emerging as important key players in stress-related pathologies. Whereas the energy-related impact of stress has received considerable attention in the past few years, the critical importance of the specialized cellular hubs called mitochondrial-endoplasmic reticulum (ER) associated membranes (MAMs) in stress responses, remains to be elucidated. Combining cuttingedge approaches, the aMUST project will shed light on this crucial biological question. Accordingly, intracranial lenses insertion of the mini endoscope in stress-vulnerable brain regions will be used to allow the study of in vivo mitochondrial calcium dynamics during behavioral experiments. 3D electron microscopy, protein ligase
assay and BioID in vivo proteomics will allow to determine composition in MAMs structures and which protein interactions are altered during stress. The use of transgenic animals, compounds that change MAMs proteins function and alleviate ER-stress will be used to prevent possible modifications that cause vulnerability to stress. Therefore, aMUST project outcomes will unveil the MAMs-related mechanisms needed to open new therapeutic avenues to promote resilience to stress.
Acknowledgements: The project leading to this application has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 895562.
About the principal MSCA-IF investigator: Eva Ramos Fernández is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics at EPFL, holder of this MSCA-IF. The principal investigator obtained her PhD in Biomedicine at UPF in Barcelona, moved to Santiago de Chile at Pontificia Universidad Católica where she got a national fund (FONDECYT, CONYCIT) to study the role of Wnt5a in the context of Alzheimer's disease. She has been awarded with several stipends and travel awards, such as those from the FENS-Cajal program, Boehringer Ingelheim, the Robert Gnehm Grant or FENS-IBRO.
Trainnings
-OMERO user meeting.
Dissemination and communication activities related to aMUST project:
- Attendance at FENS 2020 (virtual event), poster presentation
- Attendance at FENS regional meeting, 2021 (virtual event)
- Attendance at EBBS 2021 (help with the meeting organization)
- Attendance at EMBO workshop, Mitochondrial homeostasis and human disease, 2021 (Girona), poster presentation
- Attendance at Women in Science, 2021 (Montreaux)
- European Researcher's Night 2021: https://youtu.be/IAOWbx7CwFg
- Post participation on Instagram in stressnetwork.ch 2022
- Attendance at the Inscopix User Meeting 2022 (Paris)
- Attendance at FENS 2022 (Paris), poster presentation
Recent publications
- Astrocytic release of ATP through type 2 inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor calcium signaling and social dominance behavior in mice. Isabelle Guillot de Suduiraut, Jocelyn Grosse, Eva Ramos-Fernández, Carmen Sandi, Fiona Hollis. 2020, European Journal of Neuroscience
- Therapeutic potential of glutathione-enhancers in stress-related psychopathologies. Ioannis Zalachoras, Fiona Hollis, Eva Ramos-Fernández, LauraTrovo, Sarah Sonnay, Eveline Geiser, Nicolas Preitner, Pascal Steiner, Carmen Sandi, Laia Morato. 2020, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral reviews.
- Paradoxical neuronal hyperexcitability in a mouse model of mitochondrial pyruvate import deficiency.Andres De La Rossa, Marine H Laporte,S imone Astori, Thomas Marissal, Sylvie Montessuit, Preethi Sheshadri, Eva Ramos-Fernández, Pablo Mendez, Abbas Khani, et al. 2022, eLife.
- Glutathione in the nucleus accumbens regulates motivation to exert reward-incentivized effort. Ioannis Zalachoras+, Eva Ramos-Fernández+, Fiona Hollis, Laura Trovò, João Rodrigues, Alina Strasser, Olivia Zanoletti, Pascal Steiner, Nicolas Preitner, Lijing Xin, Simone Astori, Carmen Sandi. 2022, eLife.
-Mitofusin-2 in nucleus accumbens D2-MSNs regulates social dominance and neuronal function. Sriparna Ghosal, Elias Gebara, Eva Ramos-Fernández, et al, Carmen Sandi. 2022 Biorxiv.
Other activities
-Guest Editor in Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity
-Topic editor in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.
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