"Hans Selye, in his seminal 1936 note to Nature, introduced the "general adaptation syndrome. That is, the ability of the organism to adapt itself to new conditions: the basis for our understanding of stress resilience. Alon Chen (Editor), a brilliant stress neuroscientist, has recruited top experts to submit 22 chapters that make this book a valuable, cutting edge contribution to stress resilience. I strongly commend "Stress Resilience for fundamental and clinical research scientists as well as students and clinicians, especially in the fields of Neuroscience and molecular neurobiology and genetics, Neurology, Medicine, Endocrinology, Psychiatry, Psychology and related disciplines." -- George Fink (MD, DPhil, FRCPE, FRSB, FRSE) Professorial Research Fellow, the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
1. A life-course, epigenetic perspective on resilience in brain and body 2. Cognitive and behavioral components of resilience to stress 3. Resilience as a process instead of a trait 4. The brain mineralocorticoid receptor: A resilience factor for psychopathology? 5. GABAB receptors and stress resilience: A tale of two isoforms 6. Sex differences in the programming of stress resilience 7. Active resilience in response to traumatic stress 8. Rhythms of stress resilience 9. Mitochondrial function and stress resilience 10. Understanding resilience: Biological approaches in at-risk populations 11. Stress resilience as a consequence of early-life adversity 12. Mechanisms by which early-life experiences promote enduring stress resilience or vulnerability 13. Child abuse and neglect: Stress responsivity and resilience 14. How genes and environment interact to shape risk and resilience to stress-related psychiatric disorders 15. Molecular characterization of the resilient brain: Transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms 16. The role of the CRF-Urocortin system in stress resilience 17. Intergenerational transmission of stress vulnerability and resilience 18. stress and its effects across generations 19. Corticolimbic stress-regulatory circuits, hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical adaptation and resilience 20. Biomarkers of resilience and susceptibility in rodent models of stress 21. Maladaptive learning and the amygdala - prefrontal circuit 22. Endocannabinoid signaling and stress resilience
Prof. Alon Chen is a world leading neuroscientist and the 11th President of the Weizmann Institute of Science. Prof. Chen's research into the neurobiology and neuroendocrinology of stress focuses on the genomic, epigenomic and cellular mechanisms by which the brain regulates the response to stressful challenges and how this response may be linked to a number of psychiatric and physiological disorders. The long-term goal of his research is to elucidate the genetic, epigenetic, and cellular pathways and mechanisms by which stressors are perceived, processed, and converted into neuroendocrine and behavioral responses under healthy and pathological conditions.
His lab has made significant discoveries in the field, revealing fundamental genetic, epigenetic, and cellular aspects of the stress response in both animals and humans, including actions that link specific stress-related genes, epigenetic mechanisms and brain circuits to anxiety disorders, depression, eating disorders and metabolic syndrome.
Prof. Chen was the Head of the Department of Brain Sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and a Director and Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany.