'Protein aggregation as a non-genetic convergence points and biomarker for schizophrenia and depression'

Although the investigation of families with rare mutations has led to great success in elucidating chronic mental illnesses (CMI) like schizophrenia or depression, the success of common variants (GWAS studies) has been modest at best. My laboratory has attempted to characterize CMI for subtle protein aggregation or misassembly considering that almost all chronic brain diseases develop aberrant proteostasis, the most extreme cases being neurodegenerative diseases. In this talk, Carsten Korth, I will present several candidate proteins that we have identified as pathological in schizophrenia, including the Disrupted-in-Schizohrenia 1 (DISC1) protein. His team have developed a transgenic rat model to model DISC1 protein pathology and behavioral phenotypes similar to schizophrenia. In a reverse-translational approach, using this model, they have identified blood biomarkers that are able to predict a subset of sporadic schizophrenia with high specificy.

About

Dr. Carsten Korth (Doctorate of Medicine and of Philosophy) was trained in human medicine in Berlin, Munich and Kiel (Germany), and did his training as psychiatrist at the Max-Planck-Insitute for Psychiatry in Munich. He then moved into fundamental science using biochemical, molecular biology and neuroscience techniques to investigate prion diseases at the University of Zurich (Switzerland) and University of California San Francisco (USA) with Stanley Prusiner. Since 2002 he is leading a laboratory in protein aggregation diseases of the brain, applying techniques from protein biochemistry to chronic mental illnesses.