Discovering new immune biomarkers and treatments for psychiatric disorders by genetic prioritization and immunophenotyping
Summary
If we are to develop new treatments or blood tests for psychiatric disorders, it is critical to understand how different cells across the body contribute to these conditions. Recent large genetic association studies have discovered hundreds of genomic regions associated with disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
How these genetic variants lead to symptoms, and in what cells and tissues they act to do so, remains poorly understood. Our previous work suggests that, beyond the brain, lymphoid immune cells (T, B and NK cells) likely also have an important role across multiple psychiatric disorders, especially activated T cells (Lynall et al. 2022 PMID:36243721).
We hypothesize that in genetically susceptible individuals, environmental factors such as infection or stress cause abnormal lymphoid cell responses, and that these cells act on the brain to promote psychiatric symptoms.
Project aims
Working within the dynamic Cambridge-led ImmunoMind Hub, you would investigate evidence for a causal role for different immune cells in psychiatric disorders, testing which tissues, cell states and responses to environmental stimuli are most likely contributing to psychiatric disorders. You would use immunogenetic prioritization strategies to identify the immunophenotypes predicted to be causally linked to psychiatric disorders, then validate whether these changes can be detected in samples from patients.
You would integrate information about psychiatric risk variants with public and in-house functional genomic and single cell datasets from healthy participants and from patients. You would gain training in cutting edge bioinformatics, statistical genetics, immunology, clinical phenotyping, and (if desired) wet-lab experimental approaches. You would also collaborate internationally through the Psychiatric Genomic Consortium, for which Dr Lynall co-chairs the Functional Genomics group.
Contact details
Dr Mary-Ellen Lynall - mel41@cam.ac.uk
Opportunities
This project is open to applicants who want to do a:
- PhD