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…


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…


Re-orchestrating neural networks to counter schizophrenia

Parvalbumin neurons

A three-level study of the synaptic structure, neural network and behavior is particularly helpful for understanding neuropsychiatric diseases, including schizophrenia and patients with 22q11 microdeletion. The structural properties of neurons at the synaptic scale influence their effective and functional connectivity. Read more…


Portrait : 5 questions for Maria Padula

Maria Padula portrait

Maria Padula studied biology at the University of Salento Lecce in Italy before obtaining a master’s degree in neurobiology at the University of Pisa. Maria joined Stephan Eliez’s group in 2013 for her PhD thesis in Neurosciences, which she obtained Read more…


Highlight psychiatry clinical cohort : Perceiving schizophrenia

percieving shcizophrenia diagram

One in every 100 children develops schizophrenia in adulthood. But how can we know which children? Brain-imaging studies performed on the 22q11ds at-risk population provide some preliminary answers. In Switzerland, as elsewhere, one per cent of the general population develops Read more…


The 22q11DS cohort reaches maturity

Stephan Eliez portrait

As Synapsy is addressing 22q11 deletion syndrome and schizophrenia in its seventh Newsletter, the 22q11 cohort is reaching maturity, poised to deliver the fruits of a successful synergy between clinical work and fundamental research. Synapsy looks back at the origins Read more…