Understanding how grownup brains adapt to problem and alter

In a revelatory Genomic Press Interview printed as we speak in Mind Medication, Dr. Paul Lucassen, full professor on the College of Amsterdam and chief of the Mind Plasticity group, shares his scientific journey that helped remodel our understanding of how grownup brains adapt to problem and alter. His analysis, spanning matters like apoptosis, neurogenesis, (youth) stress, rodent work, human mind tissue and ailments like despair and dementia, carries implications for these affected by these problems globally.

From dementia bedside to neurogenesis discovery

The spark for Dr. Lucassen’s profession got here from an surprising supply: watching an uncle step by step succumb to dementia. “That unlucky sequence of occasions piqued my curiosity within the mind,” he remembers. What adopted was doctoral analysis with Dick Swaab on the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, investigating a deceptively easy speculation.

“I did my PhD with Dick Swaab on the speculation that, just like muscle, activation and ‘coaching’ of mind cells is sweet for them and helps them stand up to the deleterious penalties of ageing and dementia, an idea paraphrased as ‘use it or lose it’,” Dr. Lucassen explains. These years proved formative, involving animal research and work on human mind materials together with participation within the nightly autopsies of the Netherlands Mind Financial institution in Amsterdam. The query of whether or not neurons could possibly be protected via exercise would form every thing that adopted.

A pivotal second arrived throughout his postdoctoral work on stress and despair. The prevailing principle held that persistent stress may kill hippocampal neurons via glucocorticoid toxicity. However the proof refused to cooperate. “We couldn’t discover a lot assist for it,” Dr. Lucassen admits. The belief that hippocampal shrinkage after stress may normalize with restoration advised one thing else solely: maybe additionally modifications in cell start, not simply cell dying, have been concerned.

A flight to london that modified every thing

Studying nearly too late a couple of speak by Rusty Gage on grownup neurogenesis, Dr. Lucassen booked a flight and located himself in London the subsequent day. “It fully blew me away,” he recounts. ‘The invention that stem cells proceed producing new neurons in grownup brains represented a paradigm shift for me’. He returned to Amsterdam decided to desert his cell dying analysis and pursue (grownup) cell start as an alternative.

With colleague Marian Joels and their then first PhD pupil Vivi Heine, who has since develop into a professor of stem cell biology, the staff started investigating grownup neurogenesis in relation to emphasize, despair, Alzheimer’s illness and ageing. This work finally led to the Eurogenesis consortium, connecting researchers like Gerd Kempermann, Nora Abrous, Georg Kuhn, Henriette van Praag, Sebastian Jessberger, Alejandro Schinder, Nico Toni and others. With Liesbeth Reneman, Anouk Schrantee and Mirjana Maletic-Savetic, he works on detecting neurogenesis in vivo, and one other matter, as mentioned with Evgenia Salta in Cell Stem Cell in 2023, is whether or not elements that promote neurogenesis can provide safety towards neurodegenerative situations, like Alzheimer’s.

This interview exemplifies the transformative scientific discourse discovered throughout Genomic Press’s portfolio of open-access journals, enabling researchers worldwide to share discoveries that reshape how we perceive mind well being. Extra info is on the market at: https://genomicpress.kglmeridian.com/

Youth programming and later resilience

Dr. Lucassen’s present work focuses on understanding how grownup plasticity is concerned in human illness and the way it’s “programmed” through the interval of youth. Each unfavourable occasions, typically stress-related, and optimistic experiences, like elevated maternal care, work together to change danger for later psychopathology. Intriguingly, youth programming may lengthen to dementia resilience, a discovering his staff mentioned in Organic Psychiatry in 2025.

“With an organ as advanced because the mind, I’ve discovered to be humble,” Dr. Lucassen displays. However, he hopes to contribute to a greater understanding of the mechanisms underlying mind perform and illness, testing whether or not mind plasticity may be leveraged for therapeutic or preventive approaches. Within the MODEM consortium on dementia, and by way of collaborations via the Institute for Chemical Neuroscience, revolutionary molecular and multi-omic approaches are examined in rodent fashions and utilized to human postmortem mind tissue the place they are going to be mixed with machine studying of the affected person information, which he hopes will yield novel insights into the mechanisms underlying neuropsychiatric signs.

Past the laboratory: Comedian artwork and scientific tradition

The interview reveals a scientist who finds steadiness via graphic novels and comedian artwork, with treasured authentic pages by Lafebre, Franquin and Will Eisner. Biking and operating assist clear his thoughts, offering area for reflection. His life philosophy crystallizes into 4 phrases: “Lose the ego. Be type. Keep curious.” And naturally, the precept that launched his profession: “For the remaining; use it or lose it.”

Dr. Lucassen voices considerations about challenges dealing with science: the glass ceiling for ladies in Dutch academia, paperwork surrounding animal experiments that drives expertise away, the anti-science motion dismissing analysis as “simply one other opinion,” and funding programs that promote individuality over the staff science essential for tackling advanced issues. “Virtually all main breakthroughs these days come from giant teams and muti-disciplinary consortia,” he observes.

Coaching the subsequent era of mind scientists

What provides Dr. Lucassen biggest satisfaction? Working together with his staff and watching younger scientists develop. Of their profitable grasp observe on mind problems, that he coordinates with Aniko Korosi for the previous 15 years, many college students went on to do a PhD, and likewise his personal (PhD) college students Mike Marlatt and Ground Stam, obtained main roles in Daiichi Sankyo Pharma US, and the Belgian Alzheimer firm Remynd, resp., whereas Ludo van der Pol, Vivi Heine and Maaike Kempes grew to become full professors. “It merely makes me joyful and proud to see them achieve this effectively, working on the foundation of implementing novel remedies for sufferers.” At the moment, Lucassen his Mind Plasticity group has grown to 6 principal investigators, two technicians, and over 15 PhD college students, and is embedded in main consortia together with City Psychological Well being, ZonMW-ME/CFS and the Institute for Chemical Neuroscience.

Requested which dwelling particular person he most admires, Dr. Lucassen names his mentors: Dick Swaab, Ron De Kloet, and Marian Joels, admiring “their dedication and, every in their very own approach, their completely different approaches to life and to science, their humour, and the power they keep, career-long.” His real-life heroes? His spouse Anne-Marie, daughters Sofie and Eva, and the principal investigators of his group.

Dr. Paul Lucassen’s Genomic Press interview is an element of a bigger collection referred to as Innovators & Concepts that highlights the folks behind as we speak’s most influential scientific breakthroughs. Every interview within the collection affords a mix of cutting-edge analysis and private reflections, offering readers with a complete view of the scientists shaping the longer term. By combining a give attention to skilled achievements with private insights, this interview type invitations a richer narrative that each engages and educates readers. This format gives a perfect place to begin for profiles that discover the scientist’s influence on the sphere, whereas additionally referring to broader human themes. Extra info on the analysis leaders and rising stars featured in our Innovators & Concepts — Genomic Press Interview collection may be discovered on our interview web site: https://interviews.genomicpress.com/.

The Genomic Press Interview in Mind Medication titled “Paul J. Lucassen: How does our mind adapt to a altering and sometimes difficult atmosphere? How can we conceptualize mind plasticity in relation to (early) stress, vitamin, train, irritation, and ailments reminiscent of despair and dementia?” is freely out there by way of Open Entry beginning on 2 December 2025 in Mind Medication on the following hyperlink: https://doi.org/10.61373/bm025k.0140.