Nervosa Rex - June 09, 2008
How do you make a two-year-old piece of neuroscience more news-y? With a dinosaur, of course.
A team of British neuroscientists has received a £1.1m to launch a follow up study on possible genetic factors in depression and anxiety disorders (University of Aberdeen press release). The research is focused on enhancer regions in the genome which are remarkably similar in humans, mice and chickens, suggesting that natural selection has kept them in shape for over 300 million years. This implies that dinosaurs had the same enhancers, and so led to an ingenious spin on the story by Craig Brown in The Scotsman
Dinosaurs were nervous rexA GENETIC link between dinosaurs and humans could provide the key to developing a treatment for depression, according to Scots scientists.
Experts have discovered that the component in human DNA which triggers depression also existed in prehistoric beasts – and would have helped determine their moods.
Here's the original article: Davidson et al, Molecular Psychiatry 11, 410–421(2006)
Posted on behalf of Tony Scully
Image: "Dinosaur Nights", used under a Creative Commons licence from Flickr user Niznoz
Comments
Dear Nature Blogger,
Your rather condescending "Blog" gives the impression that our research group has tried to get publicity for a piece of research we did 2 years ago. This is a blatant misrepresentation. Our Aberdeen University press release was to report on the funding of our work by the Medical Research Council and not to "spin" our old papers. The “imaginative” dinosaur spin was carried out by an enthusiastic reporter at the Scotsman. I would be obliged if you would either amend or withdraw this patronizing blog as, in its current form, it undermines the credibility of our teams research efforts.
Posted by: Alasdair MacKenzie | June 10, 2008 10:20 AM
Dear Professor MacKenzie
I think you are reading too much into the post here: the person who used the dinosaur idea to make the results which are the basis of the new grant seems more palatable to his readers was Craig Grant, and that's what we say. We meant no disrespect nor expected to cause any upset.
Oliver Morton
Posted by: Oliver | June 10, 2008 10:33 AM