PTSD Brain Repository
Post-traumatic stress disorder, which afflicts about eight million Americans, appears to be a proteomic disease. DNA from these suffererss is stable, RNA is inconclusive, but protein transcription factors are altered, sharing certain characteristics with schizophrenia. While research goes on, the largest number of PTSD brains (81 whole specimens) are in the Lieber Institute for Brain Development at The Johns Hopkins medical campus in Baltimore. This is only a fraction of Lieber’s 2,000 brains, a facility created by Constance and Steve Lieber out of a personal struggle with their daughter’s schizophrenia. Constance died earlier this year, but among the Liebers’ philanthropic gifts is a $100,000 Constance Lieber Prize, awarded every two years, to a neuroscientist under the age of 55 who has made breakthrough contributions with clinical implications. MORE
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