Schizophrenia Animal Model Proven Reliable... DGIST Professor Jeongho Hyun Selected for 'Hanbitsa' [Reading Science]

Joint Research with Kyungpook National University Hospital

Schizophrenia Brain Circuit Abnormalities and Neural Network Imbalance Successfully Reproduced

A new study has found that a representative animal model used in the development of schizophrenia treatments consistently reproduces the major brain abnormalities associated with the actual disease.

Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) announced on August 11 that Professor Jeongho Hyun from the Department of Brain Sciences was selected for the 'People Who Made Korea Shine' (Hanbitsa) list by the Biological Research Information Center (BRIC), based on research proving the reliability of preclinical animal models for schizophrenia.

Research team photo. (From left) Jeongho Hyun, Professor at DGIST, Taeyoung Lee, Professor at Kyungpook National University Hospital. Courtesy of DGIST

Professor Hyun’s research team, in collaboration with Taeyoung Lee, Professor of Psychiatry at Kyungpook National University Hospital, and Visiting Professor Kisang Um, conducted a systematic review of the widely used "gestational MAM model" for schizophrenia research.

Schizophrenia is a complex mental disorder whose exact causes have yet to be clearly identified. While animal models that faithfully reproduce the characteristics of the disease as they appear in humans are essential for developing therapeutics, objective validation regarding the reproducibility and validity of these models has been limited, as research labs often employ different modeling methods.

The research team utilized a "systematic review," which comprehensively analyzes existing findings according to international standard guidelines. Their results confirmed that the gestational MAM model consistently reproduces both abnormalities in the development of the ventral hippocampus–medial prefrontal cortex circuit and imbalances in excitation and inhibition within neural networks that are associated with schizophrenia.

This research is significant because it verified the reliability of schizophrenia animal models by integrating basic brain science with clinical psychiatry. The team expects their work will enhance the credibility of preclinical studies in the development of future schizophrenia medications and neuromodulation technologies.

Professor Hyun stated, "This is an example of convergence research in which DGIST and Kyungpook National University Hospital connected basic brain science with clinical psychiatry through collaboration. It is meaningful that we could verify the reliability of preclinical studies based on evidence-based medicine. We will continue to dedicate ourselves to developing new treatment technologies."

Professor Lee said, "Overcoming complex mental illnesses like schizophrenia requires collaboration between basic and clinical research. We hope that this study will serve as a foundation for the development of therapeutic technologies that can be applied in real clinical settings."

The research findings were published in the international journal Biological Psychiatry, which focuses on psychiatry. Hanbitsa is a BRIC program that introduces Korean researchers whose papers have been published in journals with an impact factor (IF) of 10 or higher, or in the top 3% of their respective fields.

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