NCCR-Synapsy

The Synaptic Bases of Mental Diseases

An innovating treatment of psychosis based on biomarkers

schizophrenia illustration

Two units of the Department of Psychiatry, in partnership with the Harvard Medical School, have tried innovative treatment in patients who have recently developed psychosis. Their results were published in the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin. The Schizophrenia Research Unit of the Read more…


Resynchronizing neurons to erase schizophrenia

Carleton_re-synch

By increasing the excitability of a subpopulation of “defective” inhibitory neurons, researchers at the UNIGE restore the synchronization of neural networks in the hippocampus, and are thus able to suppress certain behavioural symptoms associated with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia, an often severe Read more…


Interview : Carol Tamminga

Carol Tamminga

Professor Carol Tamminga during the Synapsy conference Carol Tamminga is conducting translational research on psychosis at the University of Texas with the goal of understanding the mechanisms underlying schizophrenia (her lab >), especially psychosis and memory dysfunction. She explains her Read more…


SIRS Outstanding Basic Science Award 2017-2018 to Kim Do

Kim Do Receiving the SIRS award

Prof. Kim Do Cuénod, Head of the Psychiatric Neuroscience Center (CNP-CHUV), has been awarded with the SIRS Outstanding Basic Science Award 2017-2018 in recognition of her outstanding contribution to schizophrenia research. A pioneer in translational psychiatry research Kim Do Cuénod Read more…


Kim Do Cuénod – Leçon inaugurale à l’UNIL

kim do portrait

Neurobiologist, Kim Do Cuénod has specialized in the etiology and pathophysiology of schizophrenia. She is Head of the Schizophrenia Research Unit and Head of the Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience at the CHUV Department of Psychiatry, Prilly. She was nominated UNIL Professor on Read more…


Unraveling the biological function of a 22q11 locus gene

Aude Chenu-Molinard

Synapsy researchers reveal the developmental function of a new schizophrenia (SZ) risk-gene. The candidate SZ-risk gene DGCR2 is located in the 22q11.2 locus, whose deletion is a major risk factor for SZ. In a recent paper published in Biological Psychiatry, Aude Molinard-Chenu, former MD-PhD 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…


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…


Identification of a causal mechanism of schizophrenia

n-aceyl-cyteine

The Schizophrenia Research Unit has identified a common genetic mechanism for schizophrenia and autism, which induces impaired cognitive performance of the brain. The Schizophrenia Research Unit (URS) of the Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience (Prof. Kim Do-Cuénod) of the CHUV Department Read more…