Ms. Joanna Grażyna Sowa, the PhD student in the Institute of Pharmacology, is a winner of this year’s edition of the Young Investigator Award competition.

We are pleased to announce that Ms. Joanna Grażyna Sowa, the PhD student in the Institute of Pharmacology, is a winner of this year’s edition of the Young Investigator Award competition, awarded by the Polish Neuroscience Society (PTBUN). The competition is held every two years to honor the outstanding research carried out by young scientists in the field of neuroscience. Ms. Joanna Grażyna Sowa is currently conducting her PhD studies in the Department of Physiology of the Institute of Pharmacology Polish Academy of Sciences, under the supervision of prof. Grzegorz Hess. The research reported in the present contest is part of the Preludium grant project, funded by the National Science Center. In the speech entitled "Prenatal stress induces changes in excitatory and synaptic transmission in the dorsal raphe nucleus of adolescent rats”, presented during the 13th PTBUN Congress in Warsaw, the Laureate discussed the results obtained hitherto in her studies.

The awarded research focused on the effects of prenatal stress on neuronal properties and synaptic transmission in the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN), which is the main source of serotoninergic projections within the forebrain. The experiments have shown that prenatal stress modifies neurotransmission at glutamatergic and GABAergic synapses located on DRN serotoninergic neurons. The Author concluded, that the observed changes in excitatory and inhibitory transmission may possibly lead to dysfunction of the serotonergic system.

Congratulations!