The Silvio O. Conte Center for Stress Peptide Advanced Research, Education, & Dissemination (SPARED)

The Silvio O. Conte Center for Stress Peptide Advanced Research, Education, & Dissemination (SPARED) at McLean Hospital, funded by the National Institute of Health, is dedicated to basic and translational neuroscience research that probes the role of stress peptides in neuropsychiatric disorders. Scientists in the SPARED Conte Center are pioneers and leading experts in the diverse fields of behavioral neuroscience, genetics, electrophysiology, stress, and neuroimaging, collaborating with experts in bioinformatics and statistical genetics to establish a translational approach for understanding the roll of stress peptides in psychiatric disorders. Read about recent (and all) SPARED Conte Seed Grant Awards, including Pilot Grants.

News & Events

Dimensions of hyperarousal across levels of analysis to identify phenotypes in people with PTSD

Rosso IM, Silveri MM, Olson EA, Jensen JE, Ren B. (2021) Regional specificity and clinical correlates of cortical GABA alterations in posttraumatic stress disorder. Neuropsychopharmacology, in press

Understanding the Role of Sleep in PTSD

Dr. Carlezon leads behavioral genetic work on the interactions of sleep and stress-related psychiatric disorders. Stress is implicated in the pathophysiology of major depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. These conditions share core features, including motivational deficits, heightened anxiety, and sleep dysregulation.

Spreading SPARED findings and the joy of neuroscience to undergraduates around New England.

The goal of Project 5, directed by Dr. Berretta, is to elucidate relationships among PACAP and CRF signaling, circadian rhythm regulation, and sex differences in the pathophysiology of PTSD from postmortem human brain.

McLean Mental Health Research Summer Program (MMHRSP)

McLean Mental Health Research Summer Program (MMHRSP) is a 10-week summer neuroscience and clinical research experience for undergraduate students from underrepresented groups in mental health research careers or disadvantaged backgrounds.