Projekt

According to current scientific doctrine, depression is a disease of the brain. The research team challenges this assumption and proposes that depressive illnesses do not originate in the brain, but rather in specific changes in the peripheral metabolome and proteome (so-called peripheral mood engrams). These mood engrams are causal agents that subsequently alter the function of the brain. The researchers aim to test this hypothesis using an animal model and demonstrate that peripheral mood engrams and the symptoms of depressive disorders, as well as the positive behavioral effects of antidepressant therapy and resilience-promoting measures, can be transferred from one organism to another through the transfer of plasma. A detailed analysis of peripheral changes may also identify new candidates for causal, systems biology-based therapeutic approaches to depression. The project team is seeking to initiate a paradigm shift at the levels of basic research, drug development and therapy.

• Dr. Nils Gassen

  Universitätsklinikum Bonn
  Klinikum für Psychiatrie
  AG Neurohomöostase
  Bonn
  

• Prof. Dr. Marianne Müller

  Leibniz-Institut für Resilienzforschung
  (LIR)
  Translationale Modellentwicklung
  Mainz