Project description
Organoid models for psychiatric disorders
Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder are interconnected psychiatric conditions with shared neurobiology. However, their underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Existing testing models face significant limitations, highlighting the need for new approaches. The ERC-funded TRANS-PSYCH project aims to develop organoid models for these psychiatric disorders by targeting upstream transcription factors critical for cell type differentiation and neuronal network formation. The central hypothesis is that these transcription factors can serve as targets for modelling these disorders in brain organoids. The project will leverage multi-omics profiling on a high-quality collection of psychiatric human brain tissue to identify key transcription factors, which will then be targeted in brain organoid systems to create neurobiological models of psychiatric disorders.
Objective
Schizophrenia (SCZ), bipolar disorder (BP), and Major Depressive Disorder (MD) are three major psychiatric disorders that affect mood, thinking, and behavior. These disorders are strongly genetically intercorrelated, and exhibit pronounced clinical overlap, suggesting that they are different manifestations of a shared underlying neurobiology, along a spectrum. However, the neurobiological mechanisms and pathophysiology of these disorders are still poorly understood, limiting effective drug discovery. There is an urgent need for new models for drug testing, as animal models have major limitations, and current psychiatric organoids systems are dependent on patient derived stem cells, in which technical, genetic and biological diversity confound the interpretation, and obscure the underlying neuropathology. The major challenge of this ERC proposal is to develop organoid models for psychiatric disorders by targeting upstream transcription factors. Transcription factors are key molecules that drive cell type differentiation including neuronal network formation. Hence, the central hypothesis of this ERC proposal is that neuronal subtype associated transcription factors can function as targets to model these disorders using brain organoids. However, the neuronal transcriptional regulators that mediate these disorders are currently unknown, and difficult to identify. Novel genomics technologies allow for an unbiased characterization of the brain in order to detect cell types and genes that are dysregulated in disease, and can be used to identify putative upstream transcription factors. Here, I propose a selection of multi-omics profiling - strategies to a unique collection of high quality psychiatric human brain tissue aimed at reliably identifying key upstream transcription factors. We will subsequently target those transcription factors in brain organoid systems to establish neurobiological models of these disorders.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2022-STG
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9713 GZ Groningen
Netherlands
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