Kaoru Saijo awarded Pew scholar grant

Kaoru Saijo, an assistant professor of molecular and cell biology, will receive a four-year grant to investigate the role of the brain’s immune cells, called microglia, in the development of depression. Saijo will seek to determine whether mutations that alter gene activity in microglia lead to a sustained inflammatory response in the brain, whether such changes take place in mouse models of depression and whether they affect males and females differently. This may someday lead to new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of neurological diseases in humans.