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Cannabis Neurobiology And Schizophrenia Risk in Youth: A Multi-Omics Translation

Objective

Schizophrenia is among the most disabling Schizophrenia is one of the most disabling psychiatric disorders with great societal burden, yet its treatment and prevention are stalled by the severe lack of mechanistic understanding. At the same time, cannabis, the most used illicit drug worldwide, is a strong, modifiable risk factor, especially during adolescence when the brain is still maturing. With rapidly increasing use of potent cannabis among youth, uncovering how it disrupts brain development and contributes to schizophrenia risk has become an urgent scientific and public health priority.

CANARY introduces a novel translational framework that bridges neuroscience and psychiatric epidemiology: from mouse to human and from mechanism to clinic.

Aim 1 reveals joint transcriptional and epigenetic disruptions by THC (primary psychoactive component in cannabis), by generating the first temporal, cell-type resolved multi-omics atlas of THC effects in adolescent mouse brain.

Aim 2 maps these molecular signatures to human schizophrenia genomics using advanced cross-species multi-omic integrations, defining THC-schizophrenia shared genes, enhancers, and biological networks.

Aim 3 translates these mechanisms into clinical insight through (i) mechanism-informed individual genetic scores to identify vulnerable subgroups, and (ii) drug repurposing validated in real-world Nordic registry data using target-trial emulation.

CANARY transforms psychiatry from descriptive associations to mechanistic precision. By comprehensively integrating multi-omics and population-scale data, it clarifies how THC affects youth brain and how this can be translated to actionable clinical insights with real-world validation. Amid the accelerating global rise of cannabis use, this multi-modal framework delivers the urgently needed mechanistic foundation to guide targeted prevention and reveal new therapeutic options, establishing a scalable, mechanism-anchored blueprint for precision psychiatry.

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Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) ERC-2026-STG

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Host institution

KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET
Net EU contribution
€ 1 500 000,00
Address
NOBELS VAG 5
171 77 STOCKHOLM
Sweden
Region
Östra Sverige Stockholm Stockholms län
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost
€ 1 500 000,00

Beneficiaries (1)