TRIP

"Translational Research into Psychiatric disorders: genetics, genomics and neurobiology of psychosis and autism"

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and autism, constitute an extraordinarily high public health burden. Few novel treatments have emerged in recent years, because their aetiology is poorly understood. The recent development of new, high resolution, high-throughput research technologies, including large-scale genetic studies using microarrays and genome sequencing, high-resolution neuroimaging, neurobiology and medical/bioinformatics provide an opportunity to advance the field rapidly through the translation of knowledge on fundamental aetiology into benefit for the patient. TRiP is a joint initiative by five of the world’s leading psychiatric research centres, two in Europe and one in the USA with two emerging powerhouses of neuroscience research in China, formed to accelerate basic and clinical research into mental illness. These key research players will exchange state of the art research methodology and provide training in psychiatry research. The international dimension in TRiP directly addresses the IRSES action, which encourages long-term research collaboration between MS/AC and eligible third country partners. The participants are ideal partners, because of their world-class research expertise, complementarities, and track record of cooperation, which will result in enduring scientific exchange and collaboration between key players in the field in the EU, China and the USA. TRIP will harmonize state of the art research across the centres in order to tackle the most difficult research problems in biological psychiatry, allowing the harmonisation of phenotype measurements in patient populations, the development and dissemination of complex and advanced techniques and methodologies, the pooling of resources for direct comparison and combination of large datasets, the cross-disciplinary training of future leaders in this field and the translation of these findings for patient benefit, such as drug development and clinical genetics.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

The socioeconomic burden of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and autism is very high. Partly funded by the EU, a global initiative is underway to harmonise research on the aetiology of these diseases to improve diagnosis and therapeutic tools.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

The TRIP project is a joint initiative by five of the world's leading psychiatric research centres. Two European institutions, two centres in China and one in the United States are working to accelerate biomedical and clinical research into mental illness.

Key to the success of TRIP is an exchange programme via the International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES). Research synergy, pooling of resources, training of future world leaders in psychiatric research and dissemination will all benefit from the collaboration. Training of early-stage researchers will be enhanced by the broader knowledge, skills and tools from TRIP philosophy.

At the basis of all disorders is genomics, and a network has been established into complex neurodevelopmental disorders that are also affected by environmental input and epigenetics. Research collaborations and increased data input will help to develop disease models for further understanding. For diagnosis and individual therapy, the initiative is focused on discovery of biomarkers, and honing and improvement of neuroimaging technologies. Finally, translation of all research into clinical practice has been incorporated into the work plan.

Scientific goals include the genetic input into the aetiology of neuropsychiatric disorders and include genome-wide association studies, whole genome as well as exome sequencing. Large cohorts include multi-ethnic groups and cover discovery of common and rare variants. Gene expression analysis, chromatin immunoprecipitation and RNA sequencing, protein interaction analysis and reporter construct analysis for biomarker development are increasing knowledge on the biological function of genes for susceptibility.

Improved performance in neuroimaging techniques stand to link understanding of brain function and structure with disorders. Input from genomic research adds another layer of knowledge of the relationship between molecular biology and the phenotype of brain structure and the behavioural aspects of a particular disorder.

Formation of the network will leave a collaborative research structure that can be adapted and moulded for future initiatives on neuropsychiatric disorders. Translation of the wealth of research data from TRIP promises to improve clinical practice for risk prediction, more rapid diagnosis and effective therapy.