This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242), aims to better understand normal and disease processes in the brain by studying extracellular vesicles (EVs) isolated from peripheral blood. Specifically, the project will isolate three types of brain-derived EVs from the serum of 16 schizophrenia patients and 16 matched controls, and catalog the RNA cargo of these EVs. This will be coupled with single-nucleus RNA sequencing of post-mortem brain tissue samples to link the EV RNA profiles to cell-type specific gene expression in the brain. The $271,688 award to Virginia Commonwealth University is intended to identify novel biomarkers that could potentially improve diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment for schizophrenia. The project will run from March 2025 through February 2027.
Generated 3/25/25, 3:59 AM