Scientific Focus
My group studies the molecular mechanisms involved in the pathophysiology of mental disorders applying cross-species and cross-disorder approaches. We utilize behavioural, molecular, and histological analyses of cell culture and mouse models, viral gene transfer, as well as the genetic and molecular investigation of human biosamples and omics data from human subjects. My group tightly collaborates with psychiatrists, pharmacologists, and psychologists to translate our findings to human patients. With this approach we aim to understand the complex nature of mental disorders and overcome the translational roadblock that hampered the development of new treatments for mental disorders for the last 50 years despite significant advances in the basic neurosciences.
Methods
Mouse behaviour, genetic mouse models, maternal immune activation, stress-based animal models, viral gene transfer, human and mouse primary cell cultures, qPCR, Western blotting, immunohistochemistry, morphological analyses, QTL mapping, genetic analyses
Selected Publications
Yotova AY, Li LL, O’Leary A, Tegeder I, Reif A, Courtney MJ, Slattery DA, Freudenberg F.Embryonic and adult synaptic proteome perturbations after maternal immune activation: Identification of persistent changes relevant for early intervention. Res Sq. 2023 Jul 3:rs.3.rs-3100753. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3100753/v1. Preprint. PMID: 37461513
Candemir E, Fattakhov N, Leary AO, Slattery DA, Courtney MJ, Reif A, Freudenberg F. Disrupting the nNOS/NOS1AP interaction in the medial prefrontal cortex impairs social recognition and spatial working memory in mice. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2023 Feb;67:66-79. doi: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2022.11.006. Epub 2022 Dec 10. PMID: 36513018
O’Leary A, Fernàndez-Castillo N, Gan G, Yang Y, Yotova AY, Kranz TM, Grünewald L, Freudenberg F, Antón-Galindo E, Cabana-Domínguez J, Harneit A, Schweiger JI, Schwarz K, Ma R, Chen J, Schwarz E, Rietschel M, Tost H, Meyer-Lindenberg A, Pané-Farré CA, Kircher T, Hamm AO, Burguera D, Mota NR, Franke B, Schweiger S, Winter J, Heinz A, Erk S, Romanczuk-Seiferth N, Walter H, Ströhle A, Fehm L, Fydrich T, Lueken U, Weber H, Lang T, Gerlach AL, Nöthen MM, Alpers GW, Arolt V, Witt S, Richter J, Straube B, Cormand B, Slattery DA, Reif A. Behavioural and functional evidence revealing the role of RBFOX1 variation in multiple psychiatric disorders and traits. Mol Psychiatry. 2022 Nov;27(11):4464-4473. doi: 10.1038/s41380-022-01722-4. Epub 2022 Aug 10. PMID: 35948661
Freudenberg F, Candemir E, Chen X, Li LL, Esen-Sehir D, Schenk N, Kinoshita M, Grünewald L, Frerichs V, Fattakhov N, Manchen J, Bikas S, Kumar A, OLeary A, Slattery DA, von Engelhardt J, Courtney MJ, Reif A. Hippocampal overexpression of NOS1AP promotes endophenotypes related to mental disorders. EBioMedicine. 2021 Sep;71:103565. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103565. Epub 2021 Aug 27. PMID: 34455393
Freudenberg F, Resnik E, Kolleker A, Celikel T, Sprengel R, Seeburg PH. Hippocampal GluA1 expression in Gria1-/- mice only partially restores spatial memory performance deficits. Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2016 Nov;135:83-90. doi: 10.1016/j.nlm.2016.07.005. Epub 2016 Jul 11. PMID: 27417577