A research team from Aarhus University has just received a substantial grant from the Lundbeck Foundation. The money will go toward basic research into how nerve cell connections are formed. This can lead to new and better treatment and diagnosis of mental disorders including ADHD.

2016.04.12 | Helle Horskjær Hansen

Simon Glerup and his colleagues have found out that mutations in the sortilin genes can lead to an increased risk of ADHD in particular. They have now received DKK 9.1 million towards basic research in the area.

Simon Glerup and his colleagues have found out that mutations in the sortilin genes can lead to an increased risk of ADHD in particular. They have now received DKK 9.1 million towards basic research in the area.

An increasing number of children are being diagnosed with ADHD. This makes them hyperactive, inattentive and more impulsive. Thus far researchers have not been able to explain why children develop ADHD. Simon Glerup and his colleagues from Aarhus University have received DKK 9.1 million to carry out further research into how neuronal circuits are created and maintained. The research can give us a better understanding of psychiatric disorders.

"We are very pleased that the Lundbeck Foundation has recognised the need for more research in this area. The grant gives us an opportunity to investigate how genes control the formation and maintenance of neuronal circuits in the brain, and how this affects the risk of ADHD in particular," says Simon Glerup.

Knowledge about how our brains work is central for our understanding of what it means to be human. At the same time, the research can help pave the way for new and better treatment and diagnosis of psychiatric disorders.

The correct and sufficient connection of the brain’s nerve cells is an important factor in being able to remember, think and experience the world around us. When this goes wrong, we often see it in terms of psychiatric or neurological disorders.

"We work in particular with a group of genes that code for what are known are sortilins. Experiments on mice show that an altered expression of sortilins makes the mice hyperactive, that they find it harder to learn, have poor memory and demonstrate extreme reactions to euphoriants such as amphetamine and alcohol," explains Simon Glerup. 

Simon Glerup and his colleagues have discovered that the level of the individual sortilins is altered in certain groups of psychiatric patients, and that mutations in the sortilin genes can lead to an increased risk of ADHD in particular.

"The project has set some ambitious scientific goals and it can have significant clinical significance for patients," says Anne-Marie Engel, who is director of research at the Lundbeck Foundation, on the choice of Simon Glerup as one of the recipients of the foundation's twelve health science grants.

Further information:

Associate Professor Simon Glerup

Aarhus University, Department of Biomedicine

Direct tel.: (+45) 8716 7639

Mobile: (+45) 5122 1727

sg@biokemi.au.dk