Vanessa Nieratschker, Ph.D.
BBRF Grantee: 2015 – 2016
Universität Tübingen
Dr. Nieratschker will study how genetic factors interact with the environment in a treatment for borderline personality disorder (BPD). Established treatments for BPD include dialectical behavioral therapy, which targets patients’ environments. Dr. Nieratschker and colleagues plan to assess how this kind of therapy affects the expression of genes that have already been associated with BPD. This testing is needed to check the theory that therapy and other comparable treatments work by promoting methylation, the adding of methyl groups to DNA (an epigenetic process).
