Gabriel R. Fries, Ph.D.

Could premature #aging help explain the variability in #Alzheimer's risk in #bipolardisorder (BD)? Excited to share our latest findings on the link between epigenetic aging and amyloid biomarkers in BD, now published in @AmJGeriPsych: ajgponline.org/article/S1064-…

Thank you for highlighting our work! Future is bright for metabolic psychiatry!

Ana Cristina Ruiz’s path in behavioral health is rooted in lived experience, research, and mentorship. Now a senior research coordinator and student at UTHealth Houston School of Behavioral Health Sciences, she’s advancing mood disorder research while supporting future clinicians

Truly inspiring @SchumerMaya

The 8th Annual Symposium on Aging Research brought leading scientists to Houston for a day of innovation in aging science. Grateful to our speakers, trainees, and award winners who made it a success. #AgingResearch #UTHealthHouston

Beyond the CV: Jair C. Soares, MD, PhD, on his journey and the future of behavioral health at #UTHealthHouston. He serves as vice president for Behavioral Sciences and founding dean of UTHealth Houston School of Behavioral Health Sciences. 🎥 go.uth.edu/BeyondSoares

The second-ever pilot trial (published in the Journal of Affective Disorders) is making waves: a virtual medically supervised ketogenic diet showed impressive improvements in people with moderate to severe depression, including nearly 7 out of 8 study completers achieving clinical remission. In this interview, @bschermd sits down with lead researcher @e_brietzke, Professor of Psychiatry at Queen’s University, to explore the inspiration, execution, and implications of this study.

An interesting new study from the ENIGMA BD Working Group provides evidence of accelerated 🧠 aging in some individuals with #bipolardisorder, echoing our findings using epigenetic aging metrics and supporting #aging as a critical biological target. doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.…

Why do some individuals with serious mental illness experience earlier age-related decline? 🧬 Our new paper in @npp_journal investigates the role of premature biological aging ⌛️ in SMI and what it means for future treatments. @UTPsychiatry Check it out: nature.com/articles/s4138…

🚨 Check out our new publication from the @LAGCPsychGene Suicide Working Group, where we systematically reviewed genomic 🧬 studies of #suicide in Latin American populations. Now in press in @BiologicalPsyc1: linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S… @brendacab @UTHealthHouston @uthpsychiatry

Just finished our Neurobiology and Neuroanatomy course for the semester and got the BEST gift from one of the students 😍📚🧠 #teaching #neuroscience @UTHealthHouston

@IainCampbellPhD Thank you, Ian! It was a pleasure meeting you and I am excited to continue following your work!

Congratulations to @FriesGabriel and team for this exciting research!

🚨New indications that the insulin signalling pathway is linked to bipolar disorder: 🔬This research studied how microRNAs , which help to control genes , were different in blood-based particles from 20 healthy people and 20 people with bipolar disorder. "The pathway results across studies particularly implicated metabolic aberrations, including insulin signaling and type II diabetes mellitus." "Interestingly, the top- ranked KEGG pathway enriched with the L1CAM EVs miRNAs was the insulin signaling pathway" tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10… The authors cite my paper on Lithium and Insulin Signalling: nature.com/articles/s4139…

2025 International Summit on Suicide Research in the books! It was wonderful seeing everyone and discussing novel ways of preventing #suicide and identifying those at risk. @afspnational @SuicideSummit

📢 calling colleagues to participate or help with recruitment for qualitative study on #depression experienced by #neurodivergent young people Specifically: 👩‍👧‍👦Parents/carers 💼Mental health professionals Details in poster @GiorgiaMiche @EHayashibara @QMUL_WIPH @QMULPsychiatry

🚨New publication alert! We tested the use of blood bulk or L1CAM (of putative🧠 origin) extracellular vesicles (EVs) to identify #miRNA signatures in #bipolardisorder. Lots of lessons learned and key insights into the use of EVs for biomarker discovery: tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

🚨🚨Important Opportunity to Impact the Future of Metabolic Psychiatry🚨🚨 Our first @HubMetPsych survey of patient/family/healthcare provider priorities for our metabolic psychiatry research identified 49 research questions. Please now tell us your top 10 from this list to focus on: 👉tinyurl.com/psphub3 This will take a few minutes of your time, and will have a significant impact on the direction of metabolic psychiatry research. This the most important ask I have for the metabolic psychiatry community this year. Please share this post as widely as you can. Survey closes Friday. Thank you!🙏

A new preprint from the PGC SUI Workgroup reports multi-ancestry GWAS meta-analyses of suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, and suicide death across >50 cohorts, identifying 77 loci (59 novel) and implicating synaptic and subcortical brain pathways. 📷medrxiv.org/content/10.110…

@TamsynVR @BaszuckiGroup @fagomes1981 Thank you so much, Tamsyn!!

@BaszuckiGroup @FriesGabriel Congratulations @FriesGabriel and @fagomes1981! Legends!

Baszucki Group is proud to announce the six recipients of the first-ever Metabolic Psychiatry Scholar Award. This new initiative supports exceptional early-career scientists and clinicians working to advance understanding of the connection between metabolic health and mental health. The six scholars will each receive up to $150,000 over 18 months for original research in metabolic psychiatry. The award program advances Baszucki Group’s mission to transform mental health outcomes through research at the intersection of metabolism, psychiatry, and neuroscience. Scholars will also receive mentorship, professional development, and communication support to amplify the impact of their research. The scholars’ work falls broadly into two subcategories: research and clinical capacity-building. Four of the awardees are engaged in translational and clinical research into the links between metabolic health and mental health: Jacek Kolacz, PhD (@jacek_kolacz), Eline Dekeyster, PhD, Sean Nestor, MD, PhD, and Gabriel Fries, MSc, PhD (@FriesGabriel). Two of the awards will support clinical capacity-building projects aimed at expanding support for ketogenic therapy across the UK and Canada. These projects are led by Fabiano Alves Gomes, MD, MSc, PhD (@fagomes1981), and Erin Bellamy, PhD (@erinlbellamy). “The strength of the candidates who applied to this open call highlights the global enthusiasm to explore metabolic psychiatry's potential,” said Julie Milder, PhD, Director of Neuroscience at Baszucki Group. “From foundational research to clinical capacity building, their work has the potential to revolutionize patient treatment. We anticipate that this award marks the start of a lasting initiative that will continue to support the field for years to come.” Read the press release: bit.ly/4hs7bO0 Learn about each awardee: bit.ly/3Wh7rWk

@KundakovicLab @FordhamNYC @gallolab Congratulations, Marija!!!

Many thanks to @FordhamNYC for organizing the celebration of the recently promoted & tenured faculty. It is incredible honor to be celebrated by the President, the Provost & the Deans. So proud of my dear colleague @gallolab & many thanks to our chair Evon Hekkala for her support