On Friday 27 June at 13:00, Julie Grinderslev Donskov defends her PhD dissertation entitled "Nuclear Receptor Signaling in Mental Illness—From Genetic Risk to Psychopathology".

Mental illness poses a major global health burden, yet many cases remain undiagnosed or ineffectively treated due to our limited understanding of the underlying biology and our reliance on broad, symptom-based diagnostic categories. To improve outcomes, there is a pressing need to identify biological mechanisms that bridge genetic and environmental risk. A particular group of ligand-activated transcription factors, nuclear receptors (NRs), have emerged as key mediators of gene–environment interactions and are increasingly implicated in psychiatric vulnerability. This thesis investigates the role of NR-mediated signaling in mental illness across genetic, molecular, cellular, and systems levels, integrating large-scale human data with experimental models to uncover how disruption of this pathway contributes to neurodevelopmental and metabolic dysfunction. The results of the project will be presented during the defense.

The summary is written by the PhD student.

The defence is public and takes place in the Eduard Biermann Auditorium (1252-204), Aarhus University. Please see the press release for more information. 

Contact

PhD student Julie Grinderslev Donskov
Mail: jdonskov@biomed.au.dk
Phone: (+45) 27279585

Read full press release