Professor's $100,000 grant will bolster brain research

Kutateladze

Tatiana Kutateladze received a $100,000 grant to study the role of epigenetic regulation by Human CREB binding protein (CBP) in psychiatric disorders. She is one of 42 researchers awarded a NARSAD (The Brain and Behavior Research Fund) 2010 Independent Investigator grant for brain research.

Kutateladze, an associate professor in molecular biology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, will study the cAMP response element-binding (CREB) binding protein and the role its deficiency plays in alcohol and drug addiction, depression and the Rubenstein-Taybi Syndrome, which leads to severe mental retardation. She will complete biochemical and molecular characterization of CREB, which is essential for learning, long-term and emotional memory and for neuronal plasticity – the ability of neurons to change or make new connections with other neurons.

Kutateladze expects the research to pave the way for the identification of new pharmacological targets and more effective strategies for the prevention and treatment of alcohol and drug addiction and depression.