{"id":239318,"date":"2026-06-19T06:06:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T11:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/gene-tied-to-energy-production-in-brain-could-lead-to-new-treatment-for-cognitive-disorders"},"modified":"2026-06-19T06:06:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T11:06:22","slug":"gene-tied-to-energy-production-in-brain-could-lead-to-new-treatment-for-cognitive-disorders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/gene-tied-to-energy-production-in-brain-could-lead-to-new-treatment-for-cognitive-disorders","title":{"rendered":"Gene tied to energy production in brain could lead to new treatment for cognitive disorders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/gene-tied-to-energy-production-in-brain-could-lead-to-new-treatment-for-cognitive-disorders2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Researchers in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo have discovered a connection between a specific gene and healthy brain function. \u201cThe hope is that this discovery could eventually lead to expanded treatment for psychiatric and neurological disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and autism,\u201d explains Mikhail V. Pletnikov, MD, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, the senior author of the study with Kateryna (Kate) Murlanova, Ph.D., the first lead author and a research scientist in the department.<\/p>\n<p>They discovered that the NPAS3 gene expressed in astrocytes\u2014the cells that help with brain chemistry\u2014regulates the energy production required to support thinking and memory. NPAS3 is a transcription factor, which means it directs how certain genes work and influences how cells function. Their findings are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/sciadv.adt2527\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in Science Advances.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPrevious studies have linked NPAS3 to conditions involving cognitive problems, such as schizophrenia, but scientists didn\u2019t know exactly how it might be involved,\u201d Pletnikov says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo have discovered a connection between a specific gene and healthy brain function. \u201cThe hope is that this discovery could eventually lead to expanded treatment for psychiatric and neurological disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and autism,\u201d explains Mikhail V. Pletnikov, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,19,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-chemistry","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}