Discoveries

With ageing, the production of new neurons greatly diminishes in human and mouse brains, and I wondered why. To our surprise, we found the stem cells in the brains of older animals had become dormant. In 2008, we discovered these cells could be stimulated in vitro to produce new neurons. Later, in 2012, we showed stem cells could be activated in aged mice through exercise, which, excitingly, led to learning and memory improvements. An ongoing human study of the effects of exercise also shows evidence of significantly improved cognition, suggesting a similar mechanism exists in people.

We found over 100 sites across the human genome strongly associated with a predisposition for schizophrenia— rapidly advancing our understanding of its genetic architecture and opening the door to expanding our knowledge of its underlying biology and potential therapeutic targets.

It was surprising yet rewarding to find that scanning ultrasound can reduce the signs of dementia — a discovery we have now taken into a human safety trial.

We created a better method to measure early death. Our study found that people with mental disorders had premature mortality — 11 years earlier for men and 8 years earlier for women. This underscores the importance of improving healthcare for individuals with mental disorders.

We discovered that viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 can cause our nerve cells to fuse, severely compromising their function. Our research also revealed that this is caused by viral fusogens (specialised surface molecules) becoming present on the nerve cells and inducing them to fuse — a mechanism never understood before.