To understand neuropsychiatric disorders, we model the effect of genetic variants associated with a disorder in vitro. One of the most mature models is the generation of 3-dimensional cerebral organoids. By differentiating cerebral organoids from human embryonic or induced pluripotent stem cells carrying specific mutations, we are able to investigate the formation of neural structures in the context of a given disorder.
The RAISE-GENIC research network aims to identify models that allow to predict the drug therapy with the best chances of success for individual epilepsy patients for an individualised selection of anti-epileptic drugs.
The STAR project aims to identify the factors that contribute to the risk, prevention or recovery of non-suicidal self-injurious behaviour. The Molecular Genetics Laboratory is looking at genetic factors that may influence the reward system and the pain system in the brain. In particular, we are testing whether variants of the relevant genes might be related to behaviour and treatment outcome.
We investigate which genetic and epigenetic factors influence the risk for conduct disorders (CD) in girls and whether these correspond to the risk factors described for boys. On the one hand, we are want to understand the effect of environmental factors such as smoking during pregnancy in interaction with known genetic variants as a cause of CD. On the other hand, we are searching genome-wide for patterns of differential methylation of DNA (epigenetics) in female patients and healthy girls.
Common genetic variants explain a significant proportion of the genetic risk in autism or conduct disorder. We aim at understanding to what extent these variants influence the expression of disorder associates phenotypes and which biological networks are particularly involved.