Cód. SSPA: IBiS-B-13
PsyNal is a multidisciplinary team comprised of psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, neuropsychologists, and experts in animal models, genomics and molecular/cell biology that correlates biological findings with clinical finding through animal models, neuroimaging techniques, genetics and immunology. In the past fifteen years, the group has become a reference in the field of early psychosis, with a focus on the investigation of the neurobiological mechanisms and roots of neuropsychiatric disorders. The extensive scientific activity of the group is reflected by almost 500 indexed publications and 30 related research projects funded in competitive national and international calls. Our main hypotheses seek the existence of immunological-inflammatory alterations associated with neuropsychiatric diseases and are developed though clinical and experimental research lines that complement each other.
Within the preclinical lines, we are focused on:
- i) Activation of Maternal Immunity and Neurodevelopmental Alterations
a. MIA preclinical murine model of neurodevelopmental alterations and mental illness
b. Preclinical murine models and psychosis based on double hit hypthesis: MIA and Cannabis (THC)
c. Cohort of COVID-19 pregnant women: inflammatory phenotype in MIA newborns
- ii) Characterization of psychotropic drugs and their mechanisms of action: Clozapine
- iii) Inflammation and alterations in postnatal neurogénesis
- iv) Inflammation, glia and schizophrenia-related phenotypes
- v) Role of ADAMTS2 metalloprotease in schizophrenia.
In addition, within the clinical lines, the main ones are:
i) Cannabidiol in the treatment of schizophrenia.
ii) COVID and mental illness
iii) Development of early detection and intervention clinical cohorts with psychosis, OCD, suicide and Autism Spectrum Disorders.
iv) Efficacy of Clozapine in psychosis and intellectual disability: study CLOZAID (ICI19_0026).
v) Suicide prevention and intervention: study SURVIVE (PI1900685).
vi) Family metacognitive training in mothers with psychosis and their adolescent children
vii) Resistance to conventional treatments: clinical and biomarker study.
viii) Metabolic syndrome and psychosis
Our group proposes to build a translational bridge between clinical evidence and experimental findings (imaging, immunological, genomic, cellular activity and animal models) that will allow testing and supporting the relevance of clinical and experimental findings. The affiliation of the group to IBIS allows the formulation of research hypotheses arising in the clinic, their transfer to basic research, and the extraction of results applicable to clinical practice.
