Gabriel R. Fries

🚨 New paper alert on telomeres! 🚨
Something different from the group! Thanks to Yuxin, a talented student in the lab, we used long-reads in 75 human trios to study telomeres and their inheritance.

Good news deserves to be celebrated! 🥳 Happy to share that our lab was recently awarded 1) a Pilot grant from
@mcgovernpeds.bsky.social and 2) a CaDRE award from
UTHealth Psychiatry to develop novel in vitro neuronal models to investigate mechanisms linked to suicide and bipolar disorder 🧠🔬

Updated lab photo from our Department’s Annual Behavioral Health Research Day @uthealthhouston.bsky.social

How to thrive as a Latin American researcher abroad Four scientists share the emotional toll of pursuing science far from home — and the strategies that help them to protect their mental health.

Four scientists share the emotional toll of pursuing science far from home — and the strategies that help them to protect their mental health

go.nature.com/4mfmw65

Are you an international (outside the US) scientist looking to attend the annual @acnporg.bsky.social meeting in January?🌎

Then see below for an opportunity to join us for #ACNP2026 in the Bahamas 😎🏖️👇

Latin America has experienced an increase in suicide rate, contrasting with a global decline. We review possible reasons for this here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Led by Dr. Brenda Cabrera-Mendoza and @renatopolimanti.bsky.social, 1st publication from the LAGC Suicide Working Group.

Could premature aging help explain the variability in Alzheimer's risk in bipolar disorder (BD)? Excited to share our latest findings on the link between epigenetic aging and amyloid biomarkers in BD, now published in the American J of Geriatric Psychiatry: www.ajgponline.org/article/S106...

I recently—for the first time—spoke openly & honestly about my 11+year journey w/ #BipolarDisorder +chronic su!cidality on my friend @UmaRChatterjee podcast @AChatWithUma. Grateful to Uma for creating the opportunity for me to speak truth to stigma. Check out Part 1! (part 2 coming this week!)

You are not alone in this NIH grant game Many years ago I started blogging about the NIH system of extramural grant award because of my own frustrations with the system, as it appeared to be to me. Over time, I realized that there were a …

You are not alone in this NIH grant game drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/05/21/y...

Biological age prediction in schizophrenia using brain MRI, gut microbiome and blood data www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I had a very nice conversation last week with João Freitas on the topic of Epigenetics, Psychiatry, and the Future of Mental Health. 🧠🧪
Check out my interview 🎙️ on the Mind Body Science Podcast here:
YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubIc...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/54HO...

Time to say goodbye to one of my first mentees, Rohit Jha, who is brilliantly graduating from Rice University this week. Rohit led many of our studies with a lot of creativity and enthusiasm, and I'm very grateful for what he has done for our lab over the last 3+ years. We will miss you, Rohit! 👨‍🎓

Final leg of the 🇨🇦 tour was in Hamilton: a visit and talk at the beautiful McMaster University and St. Joseph's (plus seeing really good friends!). So excited to learn of the work they have been doing.

Loved learning more about the awesome work @robynmcquaid.bsky.social and Ayeila Daneshmend are doing on the #epigenetics of #suicide #SOBP2025

SOBP just reminded me of the amazing work being done by Dr. Patricia Silveira's lab at McGill University!

The first day of the annual meeting of the Society of Biological Psychiatry was a success (and a lot of fun)!

Exciting day 2 of the 🇨🇦 tour: Metabolic Psychiatry in Severe Mental Illness Meeting at the beautiful Hart House, UofT @uoft.bsky.social

Day 1 of the 🇨🇦 tour: productive visit and talk @camhnews.bsky.social Loved visiting the UoT campus, as well. Thank you, Dr. Erica Vieira, for hosting me!

Association between epigenetic aging acceleration and amyloid biomarkers in bipolar disorder Objectives Bipolar disorder (BD) has been associated with an elevated risk of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). We assessed AD biomarkers in BD and tested whether epigenetic aging (EA) acceleration is a poten...

🚨 New preprint from our lab explores a potential biological mechanism underlying the heterogeneity in Alzheimer's disease 🧠 risk among individuals with bipolar disorder. Check it out here: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1... #bipolardisorder #Alzheimers #aging #amyloid #epigenetics

Congratulations, my friend!!! 🥳

ACNP Travel Award Applications open TODAY for the ACNP 64th Annual Meeting: January 12-15, 2026, Nassau, Bahamas. Deadline to Submit is May 8, 2025, at 5:00 pm Central. acnp.org/annual-meet... #ACNP2026 #travelawards

A cross-generational methylomic signature of infant maltreatment in newborn rhesus macaques www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

My lab is hiring 2 postdocs on an NIH-funded grant characterizing molecular & cellular changes in the human brain across menopausal transition. Other neuroepigenomics projects are also available. We plan to hire a wet lab scientist and a bioinformatician. Please RT!
kundakoviclab.com
More info 👇

Join our Early & Mid-Career Committee as they launch its Community of Practice on Tuesday, March 25th. This online event is for early & mid-career people working in the field of #bipolardisorder. Don't miss your chance to connect with others in the field!
Register here: forms.gle/cobckZRdVK14...

🚨The @isbd4.bsky.social EMCC will host an online event to launch its 'Community of Practice' on Tuesday, March 25th, 2025. The event is free and open to all, but we require those who will attend to complete a registration form by Thursday, March 20th at 5:00PM EDT: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Insights from a methylome-wide association study of antidepressant exposure - Nature Communications The mechanism of currently prescribed antidepressants is incompletely understood. Here, the study identifies associations between antidepressant use and DNA methylation, highlighting shared signals ac...

Many thanks to all of the collaborators and funders (esp
@wellcometrust.bsky.social & @ukri.org) who made this DNA methylome-wide study of antidepressant exposure possible www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congratulations, Marija!!! Thank you for sharing this amazing news - so deserved! 🥂

Real-world effectiveness of pharmacological maintenance treatment of bipolar depression: a within-subject analysis in a Swedish nationwide cohort Since medications are typically started when depressive symptoms re-emerge, all treatments might appear less effective than they actually are when the reference is non-use of medication. Lithium was t...

Lithium wins for treatment of bipolar depression

Real-world effectiveness of pharmacological maintenance treatment of bipolar depression: a within-subject analysis in a Swedish nationwide cohort - The Lancet Psychiatry www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Same thing happened to me.