Psychotic Disorders, namely Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder rank amongst the leading causes of disability worldwide because of two main reasons. First, we lack objective and biologically plausible laboratory tests that can inform diagnosis or prognosis. This impedes early recognition and treatment and contributes to public skepticism of psychiatry and the stigmatization of patients. Second, treatment options are currently limited by the lack of knowledge of causative biological pathways.
Our strategy is to investigate the pathophysiological mechanism underpinning psychosis and particularly to identify mechanisms translating genetic risk to clinical phenotypes and to improve treatment through the specification of causative biological pathways.
Our research is organized into two modular programs, each focused on Schizophrenia or Bipolar Disorder. Each program has a clinical, cognitive, neuroimaging and genetic module with information on over 150 probands and over 250 of their family members. Research findings from these programs represent important paradigm shifts in refining conceptual models for psychosis.
The group has a dynamic presence in the field with over 200 publications in strategically-targeted and high impact journals. Our publications