I am Christoph Wilhelm Maria Turck from Germany. I am very honored to have received a PIFI Visiting Scientist Program Award for the project entitled “Molecular pathways and brain circuits pertinent to psychiatric disorder pathobiology using rhesus monkey models” carried out in collaboration with Professor Hu Xintian at the Kunming Institute of Zoology (KIZ) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). I spent a very productive month at KIZ in August/September of 2019 and plan to come back in the near future.

Brain disorders are a significant disease burden worldwide, including in China. Research endeavors that are geared towards an improved understanding of the pathobiology of these disorders will ultimately be the key to successful treatment. Psychiatric disorders start at an early age. Early intervention through a precision medicine approach will ensure an improved quality of life for patients and consequently an economic benefit for society. Our collaborative project aims to study the effects of early adversity to the development of depression-like behavior in an animal model: the rhesus monkey. The overall goals are to improve the understanding of psychiatric disorder etiology and the delineation of biosignatures. As part of this project, we collected cerebrospinal fluid specimens from rhesus monkeys at several time points. In collaboration with my former PhD student Zhang Yaoyang who is heading the proteomics research group at CAS’s Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, the samples were subsequently subjected to comparative proteomics and metabolomics analyses. Our preliminary data indicate that several molecular pathways are affected in the monkeys that exhibit a depression-like phenotype. These studies will be further extended during my upcoming stays at KIZ.

I enjoyed my time at KIZ very much. Right from the beginning Professor Hu integrated me into his research group, and his group members made my stay at KIZ very comfortable. In addition to my research activities I did some travelling to explore Yunnan Province. A particular highlight was a trip to the ancient city of Lijiang and its surrounding landscape. Another activity that I have very fond memories of during my time in Kunming is the Chinese Cooking School where I learned to prepare delicious dishes like ma po dou fu, xi hong shi chao ji dan and gong bao ji ding.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody at KIZ for the great hospitality and the stimulating discussions that have already resulted in a joint research publication. Under the guidance of Director Professor Yao Yonggang and Professor Hu, KIZ has now finished the construction of a new Primate Research Facility that is second to none worldwide. This will enable exciting new research directions. I very much look forward to being involved in this new facility and can’t wait to return to KIZ to continue our research projects.

Source: Christoph Wilhelm Maria Turck,

Kunming Institute of Zoology (KIZ),

Chinese Academy of Sciences