Terence Y Pang The Joint Annual Scientific Meetings of the Endocrine Society of Australia and the Society for Reproductive Biology 2018

Terence Y Pang

I am interested in the physiological origins of stress-related disorders such as depression and anxiety. The study of a transgenerational response (i.e. modifying offspring physiology and behaviour) to paternal environmental factors is recently emerged new field of research. My research team found that the transgenerational influence of paternal stress is more pervasive than previously though. We found that chronic stress (below the threshold that changes behaviour of an individual) experienced in a period prior to conception is sufficient to significantly alter anxiety and depression-related behaviours of offspring (Short et al, Translational Psychiatry 2016). We are currently investigating the biomechanics underlying the inheritance of stress via the male germline after identifying that stress changes small RNA profile in sperm. We are also interested in how other environmental factors such as exercise (Short et al., Transl Psychiatry 2017) and cognitive stimulation (Yeshurun et al., Psychoneuroendocrinology 2017) may hold therapeutic benefits by countering the effects of stress.