Integrated understanding of the pathophysiology in severe psychiatric disorders – a translational approach with focus on immune activation.

Our research aims to deepen our understanding of psychiatric disorders, particularly regarding the role of immune activation in the development of psychosis, cognitive impairments, and suicidal ideation.

This project, based on our discoveries that cytokine-driven activation of the kynurenine pathway triggers such symptoms, is divided into three projects: I) Stratifications of psychiatric patients allowing for immune-based precision medicine strategies, II) Unravel pathophysiological mechanisms behind immune-induced production of kynurenines and III) Preclinical characterization of the efficacy of Lead Compounds.

Thus, we aim to develop biomarkers to classify subgroups of patients and to develop new drugs.

Thorough phenotyping of schizophrenia patients will identify biomarkers to predict patients that will benefit from our novel drug candidates developed together with SciLifeLab.

Detailed investigations of the pathophysiology behind increased production of kynurenines in psychosis and suicide ideation will also be undertaken, allowing for validation of our current drug targets and discovering novel pathophysiological mechanisms. Finally, lead compounds generated in our drug discovery program will be evaluated in translational screenings assay.

The design of the project is worldwide unique involving a combination of analysis of immune-related mechanisms and phenotypic information from patients with animal studies in a translational and back-translational manner.