Our dedicated Research Assistant, Dilan Gökalp, successfully defended her thesis on the same day we received the exciting news of our article's acceptance: The Role of mGluR5 on the Therapeutic Effects of Ketamine in Wistar Rats in Psychopharmacology: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00213-024-06571-3.pdf
28 Feb 2024
In this review, we outline the laboratory procedures employed to evaluate depressive- and anxiety-like behaviors in rats and mice. These assessments encompass constructs dependent on stress-induced responses, such as behavioral despair, as well as those arising from non-aversive training, like cognitive bias. We detail the specific behavioral tests utilized for evaluating these constructs and examine criticisms regarding their theoretical underpinnings.
12 Feb 2024
Defne and Sinem conducted their initial research visit to Ruhr-Universität Bochum as part of our collaboration with Dr. Noemi Rook, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Onur Güntürkün, and Kevin Haselhuhn to study the limbic system of the Japanese quail. This collaboration is jointly funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Institution of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
15 Nov 2023
Deren presented our work on the behavioral and neural effects of intermittent environmental enrichment at the Neuroscience 2023 (D.C., USA). This particular experiment, carried out by Aybüke and Deren, is part of our ongoing efforts to comprehend the intricate behavioral and circuit-level effects of environmental enrichment in rats.
25 Jul 2023
We developed a novel, shea butter-based ketamine ointment, and showed that transdermal ketamine ameliorated behavioral despair without altering general locomotor activity and anxiety-like behavior. Combining behavioral assessment with pharmacokinetic analysis, we suggest that skin-friendly drug carriers like shea butter may constitute promising alternatives to current routes of delivery for ketamine.
11 Jun 2023
Sinem, Defne, Ece, Zeynep and Bahar presented their work with 3 posters at the 21st National Neuroscience Congress organized by Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University.
Furthermore, explaining the role of ketamine on different phases of fear conditioning, Zeynep and Bahar received a poster prize!
17 May 2023
Sinem, Deren, Dilan and Cem received their first research grant. They have submitted excellent proposals to the A2-YL Program of the Health Institutes of Turkey, which is to support each work with ₺60.000. Congratulations to our researchers!
17 Apr 2023
We reviewed the algorithms, capability, functionality and features of open-source AI-based behavioral analysis tools used in rodent research.
11 Apr 2023
Our EMBO-funded work on ventral pallidum is published in Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry !
23 Feb 2023
Our 2-year work on the prophylactic effect of ketamine on anhedonia is published in Neuropharmacology!
We congratulate Ege and Cem for overcoming an over-extended chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) paradigm.
