ModelPsych: Neural model building for psychiatric diseases - From genes to networks

A lot of genetic data has been collected from mental disorder patients, and it has become clear that many mental disorders are linked to a massive amount of genetic variants. However, while researchers know how genes control the behaviour of simpler organs, there is a lack of knowledge on how genes affect the brain. Recently, detailed modelling of neurons has greatly enhanced, and many aspects of mental disorder pathology can be studied with computational models. The main objective of the ModelPsych project is to combine recent advances in genetics and neuron modeling to discover how mental disorders work. Special focus is placed on schizophrenia and its symptom-like alterations that, unlike most actual symptoms, have been studied in both animals and humans. This will be done by building computational models that describe these alterations and explain the role of the genes in the disease. This will shed light on the pathology and may help make better treatments for the disease.