Young Lab

About

Our lab has been performing research into serious mental and neurodegenerative conditions in Central Texas for over 30 years, specializing in human and animal genetic, brain molecular and brain anatomical studies of Alzheimer’s, Major Depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD). We have also been performing longitudinal studies related to military posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and its treatment. Our current military deployment biomarker and post-mortem research suggests congruent alterations in blood and brain pathophysiology providing clues to new treatments for PTSD. As a senior advisor to the National PTSD Brain Bank, I have recently contributed to completion of the largest studies of PTSD brain gene expression and methylation studies. We are currently using our prior experience with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) transgenic mouse models to assist in the development of a chronic model of PTSD to investigate anatomical and gene expression changes contributing to the high comorbidity between AD and PTSD. Finally, we are developing ways to apply new spatial transcriptomic and spectrophotometric techniques to study the mental conditions.