NCCR-Synapsy

The Synaptic Bases of Mental Diseases

Communication defect in psychotic disorders

Scientists at the UNIGE demonstrate how a defect in communication between brain areas is linked to the onset of psychotic disorders.   Communication between brain areas is crucial for the brain to correctly process sensory signals and adopt an appropriate Read more…


Protecting the intellectual abilities of people at risk for psychosis

A Synapsy team based at UNIGE has found that a class of drugs can protect the development of intellectual abilities in people at risk of psychosis, if prescribed before adolescence. One person in 2000 suffers from a microdeletion of chromosome Read more…


Is schizophrenia the cost of a poor brain optimisation?

Patients with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome have a high risk of developing schizophrenia. According to a recent study by neuroscientists from Synapsy, the Swiss National Research Centre of Competences in Research into Mental Illness, their brains seems to use energy in Read more…


Poor wiring in the centre of the brain leads to psychosis

Psychosis is linked to abnormalities in brain development. A team from the Synapsy National Centre of Competences in Research has demonstrated that the regions of the brain involved in processing memory, imagination and emotions in people with psychosis have poor Read more…


Two Synapsy Neuroscientists Win Prestigious European Grants

Camilla Bellone, member of the NCCR-Synapsy and researcher at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), was awarded the European Research Council’s ERC Consolidator grant. Additionally, Alan Carleton, also a member of Synapsy and researcher at UNIGE, was awarded the ERC Synergy Read more…


Joint NCCR Synapsy – IRCN “22q” Workshop, Jul y 6-7, 2019, Tokyo, Japan

This past weekend, a joint NCCR Synapsy-IRCN workshop took place University of Tokyo. Several Synapsy PIs from UNIGE attended and presented their research (Profs. Alexandre Dayer, Stephan Eliez, Marie Schaer, Camila Bellone, Alan Carleton). Copy number variations in chromosome 22q Read more…


22q11 symposium at the 18th ESCAP congress in Vienna

Members of the group of Prof. Stephan Eliez, from the University of Geneva successfully finished the first Synapsy symposium at this year’s ESCAP congress in Vienna on Sunday June 30th. Topics covered neurodevelopmental and cognitive endophenotypes of psychosis vulnerability in Read more…


Stephan Eliez interviewed by RTS radio – CQFD show

Schizophrenia: everything is at stake in the adolescent brain   A developmental problem of the hippocampus during adolescence is at the root of a process that can lead to schizophrenia. This is the subject of Synapsy member Stephan Eliez and Read more…


Schizophrenia: adolescence is the game-changer

Researchers at UNIGE have discovered that the development of the hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for memory and emotions, is severely impacted in adolescence following the onset of the first psychotic symptoms. Sub-field of the hippocampus in three Read more…