CREM de la CREB with Ian Mahar

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It’s our tenth episode and we’ve got a lot on our minds this week!  We’re welcoming our inaugural guest host, Ian Mahar, to OYM headquarters and he’s fitting in seamlessly.  Ian brings up a stimulating hypothesis – that there’s a spike in neuroscience productivity in the weeks surrounding SFN.  He and Liam are definitely feeling the pressure to get last minute data analysis and poster designing out of the way before they set off to San Diego.  If you’re going to be at SFN this year, you should definitely stop by Ian and Liam’s posters and talk science, or just life in general, with the guys.
We’re talking about “Increased Hippocampal Neurogenesis and Accelerated Response to Antidepressants in Mice with Specific Deletion of CREB in the Hippocampus: Role of cAMP Response Element Modulator τ” by Gundersen et al (DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1669-13.2013).  This paper uses a Cre-Lox mouse model to reduce CREB expression throughout the hippocampus.  CREB is a transcription factor that increases or decreases the expression of numerous genes, and is more abundant and active following long-term antidepressant treatment.   The hippocampus, one of the few areas of the brain that remains neurogenic throughout adulthood, is also thought to be involved in antidepressant response.  When CREB was decreased in the hippocampus, the authors saw unique changes in anxiety-like behaviours in the novelty-induced hypophagia task. They also measured an increase in new cell formation in the neurogenic area of the hippocampus.  This fits into Ian’s area of expertise, so he gives us valuable insight into hippocampal neurogenesis, antidepressant response and why we use the tests we do when using animal models.We’re also talking about the best ways to manage your time at huge conferences and whether or not to include social media when talking about an article’s impact (http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001687).  Adel’s been looking at some mysteries of medicine and has a strange anti-aging disorder, with no genetic mutations, on his mind.  And, on top of all this, we take a drastic turn and talk about potential dishonesty in the publications section of applications and a huge lawsuit against Johnson and Johnson.