Translational Psychiatry

Our multidisciplinary research team investigates the role of cognitive + emotional control (rule making, rule breaking), in a number of psychiatric and neurological disorders. By encompassing both clinical and preclinical research, we aim to bridge the translational gap by performing matching studies with similar tasks or readouts (e.g. attention, reversal learning) and cross-species interventions (e.g. pharmacology, neurochemistry). To ensure the integration is complete, we utilize a number of data integration and bioinformatics approaches on both clinical and preclinical data sets.

Our focus is on a series of interconnected circuits to and from the anterior + midi cingulate cortex, other cortical sub cortical regions in mediating impulsivity / compulsivity, aggression, antisocial behaviour and decision making.

Current projects:

• EU FP7 TACTICS aims to identify the neural, genetic and molecular factors involved in the pathogenesis of compulsivity in normally developing children and adolescents, and children and adolescents with ADHD, with autism and with obsessive-compulsive disorders by using identical paradigms in matched animal and human studies.
  
  
• EU FP7 AGGRESSOTYPE aims to investigate the aetiology of maladaptive aggression in paediatric conduct disorders most strongly predisposing to pathological aggression, ADHD and conduct disorder.
  
  
• ZonMW Translational Medicine project on Robotics for Autistic Children aims to adapt psychological interventions such as applied behavioural analysis to robotic scenarios for use with autistic children.
  
  
• EU FP7 MATRICS aims to investigate the role of arousal and stress reactivity on conduct problems. It also examines the moderating effect if callous-unemotional / psychopathic traits on this using a multi-modal (phenotypic, MRI, epigenetic) approach in both preclinical models and patient cohorts. In addition, in collaboration with Dr. Inti Brazil (DCC), a 1200+ strong population cohort with detailed deep phenotyping of social, antisocial, psychopathic and aggressive behaviours (EPIPATHY) has been collected.
  
  
• EU IMI2 PRISM aims to investigate the neural (MRI) and phenotypic substrates of social withdrawal in schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s Disease. The social withdrawal correlates will be matched later to clinical depression and autism cohorts as well as to loneliness as a trait in the general population.
  
  
• EU Horizon 2020 CoCA aims to investigate ADHD comorbidities in particular obesity and circadian rhythm disturbances linked to alterations in dopaminergic processing.
  
  
• EU Horizon 2020 Eat2BeNice examines in a series of clinical trials, the role of probiotics, vitamin supplementation and diet restriction on impulsivity and compulsivity. In addition, it will examine microbiome and neural (MRI) correlates of these matched to phenotypic markers.
  
  
• ZonMW B3 Project examines the role of the microbiome in autism and ADHD both in clinical cohorts and in animal models. A bacterial extract (OM-85) is being examined for its activity on (i) symptom sets relevant to these disorders and (ii) the microbiome.

Completed:

• EU FP7 OPTIMISTIC is the first ever project to focus on the cognitive aspects of type 1 myotonic dystrophy (DM1) and aims to improve clinical practice and standards of care for patients with DM1 internationally by improving cognitive control.
  
  
• Marie Curie ITN TS-EUROTRAIN aims to study the etiology of the onset and clinical course of Tourette syndrome and related disorders (OCD, ADHD, autism) and to translate research findings into clinical applications, with a special emphasis on glutamatergic mechanisms.

Completed projects in collaboration with Prof. Buitelaar (Developmental Psychiatry):

• EU FP7 PERS that involves a series of clinical studies on the efficacy and safety of risperidone in the treatment of conduct disorder with the aim to obtain a Pediatric Use Marketing Authorisation. (PUMA).
  
  
• EU FP7 STOP that aims to study the mechanisms involved in suicidality as a side-effects of medication in children and adolescents.
  
  
• EU FP7 ADDUCE that comprises a set of clinical studies on the long-term safety of psychostimulant medication in patients with ADHD.
  
  
• IMI EU EU-AIMS. This is a large program built on private-public partnership to identify new molecular targets for treatment of autism, develop new outcome measures, improve clinical trials methodology, and improve and harmonize the clinical infrastructure for autism research.

Key publications:

• Buitelaar JK, Smeets KC, Herpers P, Scheepers F, Glennon J, Rommelse NN (2012). Conduct disorders. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2012 Dec 6. [Epub ahead of print].
  
  
• Poelmans, G., Franke, B., Pauls, D.L., Glennon, J.C., Buitelaar, J.K. (2013) AKAPs integrate genome-wide association study findings for autism spectrum disorders. Transl Psychiatry. 2013 Jun 11;3:e270.
  
  
• Kas MJ, Glennon JC, Buitelaar J, Ey E, Biemans B, Crawley J, Ring RH, Lajonchere C, Esclassan F, Talpos J, Noldus LP, Burbach JP, Steckler T. Assessing behavioural and cognitive domains of autism spectrum disorders in rodents: current status and future perspectives. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2013. Epub ahead of print Sep 19.

EL NOV 17