“Glia mechanisms in stress response”

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• Dr. Valentina Mosienko, University of Bristol
• Thursday 18 September 2025, 12:00-13:00
• School of Clinical Medicine - Theo Chalmers Lecture Theatre.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Cory Willis.

Abstract: Stress-related disorders such as anxiety and depression are the most common neuropsychiatric illnesses affecting about 8% of the global population. Limited success in developing treatments to build resilience to stress or counteract its adverse effects is a result of our poor understanding of biological mechanisms of stress. In this seminar, Dr Valentina Mosienko will present their ongoing work investigating the involvement of glial cells in the response to stressors encountered during early life and adulthood. She will present evidence from their preclinical research on metabolic and morphological adaptations in glial cells following both acute and chronic stress exposure. Dr Mosienko will explore the mechanisms by which antidepressants modulate astrocyte function, with particular emphasis on astrocytic metabolism and the release of psychoactive molecules induced by common antidepressants such as specific serotonin reuptake inhibitors, rapid acting antidepressants like ketamine and psychedelics.

Bio: Dr Valentina Mosienko is an MRC Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience at the University of Bristol. Her research focuses on identifying novel molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying stress response and antidepressant action, with a particular emphasis on the role of brain glial cells, astrocytes and microglia.

Before her current appointment, Dr Mosienko was a Lecturer at the University of Exeter, where she investigated molecular and cellular pathways of stress response, with a special focus on the regulatory roles of miRNAs. She completed her PhD and early postdoctoral training at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin, where she integrated behavioural testing with molecular and pharmacological approaches to comprehensively study the role of the serotonergic system in depression, anxiety, aggressive, social and autism-like behaviours. During her subsequent postdoctoral work at the University of Bristol, Dr Mosienko applied advanced molecular, cellular, and imaging methods to discover novel receptors involved in astrocytic lactate signalling in the brain.

A reminder: the talks are in-person only and a recording is not available.

If you want to have a chat with the speaker, please contact Cory Willis (cw739@cam.ac.uk) in advance.

This talk is part of the Clinical Neurosciences series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Clinical Neurosciences
• School of Clinical Medicine - Theo Chalmers Lecture Theatre

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