Forschung

The Group of Translational Psychiatry covers a wide range of methods focusing on the molecular neurobiology of psychiatric disorders. Our work group is centred on the neurobiology of stress-related disorders; with particular emphasis on neurodevelopmental, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and mood and anxiety disorders. We use, and develop, state-of-the-art behavioural, pharmacological and molecular approaches to gain a deeper understanding of their aetiology and uncover novel target systems, particularly by employing back-translational approaches. The latter is performed in collaboration with a number of the clinical workgroups within the department.

Particular focus areas include:

• Neurobiology of aggressive behaviour
• Developing translational models to study psychiatric endophenotypes
• Role of neuropeptides in anxiety- and affective- disorders
• Sex-differences in these research areas

1. Assessing the role of the RNA binding protein RBFOX1 in psychiatric disorders

2. Assessing the comorbidity between altered insulin signalling and Alzheimer’s disease (part of the H2020 PRIME consortium)

3. Assessing factors involved in the control and display of aggressive behaviour

4. Assessing the stress resilience properties of Mycobacterium vaccae in both the dam and her offspring

• Univ.-Prof. David Slattery (group leader)
• Aet O’Leary (Senior scientist)
• Lena Grünewald (Lab manager)
• Anna Yotova (PhD student, Main-Campus-doctus stipend)
• Betül Kurt (MD student)
• Aliaksandr Malyshan (MD student)
• Tom Knupka, Malin Gänger, Loreta Shabani (BSc students)
• Lea Hildmann (INS Master student)
• Joyce Auer (technician)
• Sabine Stanzel (technician)

• Theresia Töpner (technician) 

• Dr Michael Bowen (University of Sydney, Australia)
• Prof. Georg Auburger (Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany)
• Prof. Bru Cormand and  Dr Noelia Fernandez-Castillo (University of Barcelona, Spain)
• Prof. John Cryan  and Dr Harriët Schellekens (University College Cork, Ireland)
• Prof. Thomas Deller (Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany)
• Prof. Jaanus Harro (University of Tartu, Estonia)
• Prof. Christopher Lowry (University of Colorado, Boulder, US)
• Dr Christopher Murgatroyd (Manchester Metropolitan University, U.K)
• Prof. Alasdair McKenzie (University of Aberdeen, U.K.)
• Prof. Stefan Reber (University of Ulm, Germany)

• Gerdi Ansing (MSc student, University of Groningen, The Netherlands)
• Sofia Blum (BSc student; now MSc student, University of Düsseldorf)
• Dr Esin Candemir
• Quinn Painter (INS MSc student)
• Laura Pineda (visiting PhD student; back at Uni. of Barcelona)
• Max Rechberg (MSc student, University of Mainz)
• Diana Singh (MSc student, University of Mainz)
• Simon Waas (BSc student; now INS MSc student)
• Vanessa Beck (INS MSc student)
• Anneke Fuß (BSc student)
• Laura Kassel (BSc student)
• Marie Kögler (BSc student)
• Laura Pieper (BSc student)
• Zeynep Özdemir (MD student)
• Madeline Melch (INS Master thesis student)
• Sophia Tischer (INS Master thesis student)
• Simon Waas (INS Master thesis student)
• Lisa Burger (BSc student)
• Mona Stegemann (BSc student)
• Francesco Bruno (MD student)
• Vu Thao-Vi Dao (MD student)

(see David Slattery and Aet O’Leary homepages for full list)

• Yotova, A.Y., Li, L.L., O'Leary, A., Tegeder, I., Reif, A., Courtney, M.J., Slattery, D.A*., Freudenberg, F., 2024. Synaptic proteome perturbations after maternal immune activation: Identification of embryonic and adult hippocampal changes. Brain Behav Immun. 
• Ritz, N.L., Brocka, M., Butler, M.I., Cowan, C.S.M., Barrera-Bugueno, C., Turkington, C.J.R., Draper, L.A., Bastiaanssen, T.F.S., Turpin, V., Morales, L., Campos, D., Gheorghe, C.E., Ratsika, A., Sharma, V., Golubeva, A.V., Aburto, M.R., Shkoporov, A.N., Moloney, G.M., Hill, C., Clarke, G., Slattery, D.A., Dinan, T.G., Cryan, J.F., 2024. Social anxiety disorder-associated gut microbiota increases social fear. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 121, e2308706120
• O'Leary, A., Fernandez-Castillo, N., Gan, G., Yang, Y., Yotova, A.Y., Kranz, T.M., Grunewald, L., Freudenberg, F., Anton-Galindo, E., Cabana-Dominguez, J., Harneit, A., Schweiger, J.I., Schwarz, K., Ma, R., Chen, J., Schwarz, E., Rietschel, M., Tost, H., Meyer-Lindenberg, A., Pane-Farre, C.A., Kircher, T., Hamm, A.O., Burguera, D., Mota, N.R., Franke, B., Schweiger, S., Winter, J., Heinz, A., Erk, S., Romanczuk-Seiferth, N., Walter, H., Strohle, A., Fehm, L., Fydrich, T., Lueken, U., Weber, H., Lang, T., Gerlach, A.L., Nothen, M.M., Alpers, G.W., Arolt, V., Witt, S., Richter, J., Straube, B., Cormand, B., Slattery, D.A., Reif, A., 2022. Behavioural and functional evidence revealing the role of RBFOX1 variation in multiple psychiatric disorders and traits. Mol Psychiatry 27, 4464-4473.
• Gururajan, A., Reif, A., Cryan, J.F., Slattery, D.A., 2019. The future of rodent models in depression research. Nat Rev Neurosci 20, 686-701.
• Martinetz, S., Meinung, C.P., Jurek, B., von Schack, D., van den Burg, E.H., Slattery, D.A.*, Neumann, I.D*., 2019. De Novo Protein Synthesis Mediated by the Eukaryotic Elongation Factor 2 Is Required for the Anxiolytic Effect of Oxytocin. Biol Psychiatry 85, 802-811.