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Cellular-level connections provide potential targets for improved diagnosis and treatment

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- Sleeping, eating, working; humans, as well as many other living organisms, have circadian patterns, regularly occurring, 24-hour rhythms, that are part of normal function.  Dysfunctions in regular patterns – such as insomnia and unexplained fluctuations in appetite, body temperature and/or hormones — are symptoms shared by many patients with depression.   Researchers at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, with scientists at the University of Michigan, the University of California at Irvine, Stanford University and Weill Cornell Medical College, collaborated in a study where they found the first direct evidence connecting cellular level activity in the brains of patients with depression to out-of-step circadian rhythms.  These groups have been part of the Pritzker Neuropsychiatric Disorders Research Consortium for the past decade.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- Advancing work toward sustainable crops and sustainable fuels is among potential outcomes from a project undertaken by the International Peach Genome Initiative. The initiative, including researchers at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology and the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, has completed the draft genome of peach, Prunus persica, and published findings in the March 24 edition of Nature Genetics.