Depressed mice could aid research on depression in humans
New research shows that a unique strain of laboratory mice characterized at Penn State has behavioral, hormonal and neurochemical characteristics that are similar to those of human patients with drug-resistant forms of depression. The mice, which have a defect in a gene, are expected to be useful as a new model organism in the effort to develop more effective medications for specific forms of depression. The research, led by Bernhard Luscher, professor of biology at Penn State, will be published in the journal Biological Psychiatry. (more)