Saving lives: building a total nationwide multimodal suicide cohort to improve precision in prediction and prevention of suicide

Suicide is a major public health issue, causing severe impacts on individuals and families, as well as huge societal costs. In Sweden alone, 1500 lives are lost each year due to suicide.

Despite dedicated research efforts and prevention strategies, suicide-related outcomes are still difficult to predict and prevent.

The goal of this five-year research program is to utilize unique resources in Sweden to improve prediction of suicide by integrating environmental factors captured by national registers and genetic information using multi-modal modelling.

In aim 1, we will create the world’s largest suicide biobank by collecting DNA from neonatal blood spots stored at the Swedish PKU biobank from 5,000 individuals who died by suicide.

Data from the population-based national registers will be linked to the DNA data, covering major risk factors across the lifetime.

Further, blood spots and register-based data from matched controls will be available through collaboration and other funded projects.

In aim 2, we will identify genetic loci associated with suicide by genotyping all DNA samples from aim 1 and performing a case-control genome-wide association study.

In aim 3, we will combine hundreds of candidate suicide predictors from the national registers with genetic predictors using both established quantitative modelling and newer machine learning approaches. Together, these aims will improve precision in the prediction of suicide, ultimately enabling prevention efforts.