Group of Translational Psychiatry

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

Selected Current Projects

  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

Group members

Translational Psychiatry - Members

Translational Psychiatry - Symposium

Members and colleagues enjoying an evening at a traditional Frankfurt apple wine restaurant during the “Novel mechanisms of resilience and stress-related disorders” symposium held in Frankfurt in 2017

Collaborations

Former members

  • 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)

Selected five publications

(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.

Adapted from Gurarajan, Reif, Cryan and Slattery, Nat Revs Neurosci, 2019