Women’s mental health across the reproductive years

A flyer containing some brain art, the date (16th to 18th of September, 2026) and the location of the event (Würzburg)

🧠 𝗦𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘!

The 𝟮𝟳𝘁𝗵 𝗡𝗲𝗡𝗮 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 is coming to Würzburg!

Three days of student talks, posters, and meeting fellow neuroscience enthusiasts — plus our legendary karaoke evenings 🎤

Mark your calendar and stay tuned for registration & abstract submission!

#NeNa2026 #neuroscience #conference

An important milestone for Gloria and for the IRTG, marking a strong start for our doctoral program. Congratulations on this excellent achievement, and thank you to everyone who contributed to and supported this work, especially her PIs Tobias Kaufmann and Erika Comasco! 🤍

We warmly congratulate Gloria on the successful defense of her PhD thesis entitled:
“Machine learning based classification of sex differences in the brain: investigating female-specific processes across the lifespan.”

🎓 𝐏𝐡𝐃 𝐃𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 | 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, Gloria Matte Bon @gloriamattebon.bsky.social!

Today, we celebrated the first PhD defense of the IRTG 🎉

We’re especially happy that our IRTG2804 could connect closely with DZPG.

A big thank you to the Berlin ECS for the excellent organization! 🤍

We had a fantastic time presenting our work at the Early Career Scientist Congress of the Germany Center for Mental Health (DZPG-ECS) in Berlin 🧠

It was an inspiring meeting with ECRs, full of exciting talks, great networking, and lots of fun!

We are looking forward to the next wave of research, collaborations, and conversations to come 🙌🏻

We are particularly delighted to see that women’s mental health is gaining real scientific momentum across disciplines. The growing recognition of hormonal transitions as key windows for brain and mental health research is both encouraging and long overdue.

🧠🇮🇹 Greetings from sunny Torino and the 13th International Meeting on Steroids and the Nervous System!

We truly enjoyed the translational exchange, engaging discussions, and reconnecting with long-standing as well as new colleagues in the field – and of course, the amazing Italian food 🍕

A big thank you to Zsófia Karlócai (@kzsofia.bsky.social), who came up with the concept and organized the event 🤍 It was a great way to connect and start the new year together!

The event encouraged teamwork, creativity, and lots of laughter as the first and second cohorts joined forces across different games and tasks 🎯🏅

On the second day of our Welcome Event, both PhD cohorts came together for the 𝗣𝗵𝗗‑𝗢𝗹𝘆𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘀 🏆, a series of fun challenges inspired by the ups and downs of PhD life.

Many thanks to everyone who contributed and took part in the event!🤍 We look forward to seeing how the projects develop and to further advancing research in women’s mental health across the lifespan 🧠

Members of the first cohort shared their experiences and achievements so far, while the new cohort presented their planned projects 🙌

The Event provided an overview of the IRTG structure and resources, including introductions to the @gtc-tuebingen.bsky.social (Graduate Training Centre of Neuroscience), the MRI Core Facility, Bio-Sample and Data Management, and the Medical Faculty of the @unituebingen.bsky.social 🎓

We were very happy to welcome the second cohort of PhD candidates at our recent 𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁! ✨

It was great to have you @didemstark.bsky.social 🙌🏻

Our new preprint from Dr Jennifer Richards now back to 🇸🇪: we looked at whether pregnancy history & a high fat/high sugar diet influenced how estradiol affected brain health in middle age- might this address inconsistencies in human findings? (Yes) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

📣 Congratulations to our PhD researcher Zsófia Karlócai (@kzsofia.bsky.social) on the publication of her paper:
"Developmental differences in reward-learning and its connection to resting-state functional connectivity modeled using a hierarchical Bayesian model"
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Christmas is over and you start wondering what 2026 may bring? 🎁 Perhaps this #PhD position in Tübingen on the Neural Mechanisms of #Body #Memories in #women & #men is for you 👇 Starting date 01.03.2026 or earlier #fMRI #mentalhealth #sexdifferences

Let's Talk With Young Researchers: Livia Ruehr

Our PhD student @liviaruehr.bsky.social is featured in the new episode of „Let’s talk about women“! With podcast host @franziweinmar.bsky.social, she talks about her PhD project & shares insights into her doctoral journey. 🧠🤩 open.spotify.com/episode/4ALM...

Wishing you all restful holidays and looking forward to an exciting 2026! 🎆

...and our IRTG Postdoc Ann-Christin Kimmig, our coordinator Ferdinand Sörensen and our Spokesperson Birgit Derntl for their continuous dedication 👏🏻

Thanks to our 12 PhD candidates, @miracnur.bsky.social, Anna Denninger, @mkoerdel.bsky.social, Elise Bücklein-Ehlers, @kzsofia.bsky.social, @ninagoll.bsky.social, @franziweinmar.bsky.social, Serenay Yazıcı-Sarıkaya, Edita Karavidaj, Volha Auchynnikava, Hanna Wierenga, @gloriamattebon.bsky.social

We closed the year with a cozy Christmas get-together🎄🎁 Good conversations, lots of laughter, and a moment to appreciate the progress, challenges, and shared efforts that shaped 2025 ✨

Thank you to everyone who has supported our work in women’s mental health this year!

Higher glucose levels buffer against everyday stress load Adaptive stress responses are dependent on the availability of energy and the body's effectiveness in metabolizing glucose as fuel. However, it is not well understood if glucose levels contribute to t...

📣I’m excited to share our new preprint on how our body’s energy supply shapes everyday stress experiences:

📄𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐥𝐮𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐛𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Prof. Frøkjær's research bridges psychiatry, neurology, and neuroendocrinology to uncover how brain architecture and hormonal rhythms contribute to the risk for neuropsychiatric disorders, aiming to guide more precise prevention and treatment approaches

Today, Prof. Frøkjær presented her amazing research on:
"Hormonal contributions to depression in women:
implications for precision psychiatry"

Last night's dinner and today’s talk from our external speaker, Vibe Frøkjær, from Denmark 🇩🇰

We had a wonderful evening discussing research, ideas, and collaborations ahead of today's colloquium!