Brian Dias
Appointment
Fellow
CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar 2017-2019
Child & Brain Development
Connect
About
Research in the Dias lab seeks to understand how the nervous system is impacted by stress or trauma, and how parental legacies of stress or trauma influence offspring by leaving imprints on the parental germline (sperm and egg).
Armed with this understanding, Dias and his team aim to devise therapeutic interventions to ameliorate the effects of stress or trauma in both parental populations and their offspring. To investigate how the biology of an organism and its responsiveness to stress or trauma is influenced by micro- (genome, epigenome and hormones) and macro-environments (ancestral, in utero and post-natal experiences), Dias uses molecular, cellular, genetic, epigenetic, physiological and behavioural approaches. Most of his work uses mice, but generous collaborators have enabled Dias and his team to begin investigating the biological basis of behavioural states and neuropsychiatric disorders in non-human primates and in humans, in multi-generational contexts.
Awards
- Reves Center Distinguished Lecturer in International Studies
- Emory University Research Council Award
- Participant at 2016 Sci-Foo Camp
- FAPESP-SPRINT Award
Relevant Publications
Dias, B. G., & Ressler, K. J. (2014). Parental olfactory experience influences behavior and neural structure in subsequent generations. Nature neuroscience, 17(1), 89-96.
Dias, B. G., & Ressler, K. J. (2014). Experimental evidence needed to demonstrate inter‐and trans‐generational effects of ancestral experiences in mammals. Bioessays, 36(10), 919-923.
Dias, B. G., Goodman, J. V., Ahluwalia, R., Easton, A. E., Andero, R., & Ressler, K. J. (2014). Amygdala-dependent fear memory consolidation via miR-34a and Notch signaling. Neuron, 83(4), 906-918.
Dias, B. G., Banerjee, S. B., Goodman, J. V., & Ressler, K. J. (2013). Towards new approaches to disorders of fear and anxiety. Current opinion in neurobiology, 23(3), 346-352.
Nair, A., Vadodaria, K. C., Banerjee, S. B., Benekareddy, M., Dias, B. G., Duman, R. S., & Vaidya, V. A. (2007). Stressor-specific regulation of distinct brain-derived neurotrophic factor transcripts and cyclic AMP response element-binding protein expression in the postnatal and adult rat hippocampus. Neuropsychopharmacology, 32(7), 1504-1519.
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