NCCR-Synapsy

The Synaptic Bases of Mental Diseases

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…


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…


The WP#3 is setting the tone

Technology transfers

A new Synapsy era has emerged with the entering in Phase-3. Its success will depend, among other things, on Synapsy’s ability to transfer technologies. It didn’t take long to hear about a great example of technology transfer! Last October, the 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…


Prof. Eliez tells us more about last July ESCAP 17th Congress

ESCAP auditorium

The seventeenth International Congress of the European Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (ESCAP) — with “transition” as its central theme — was held in Geneva in July 2017 with nearly 1,400 psychiatrists in attendance. The congress received substantial backing Read more…


ESDM: A Game-changing therapy for autism

Autism band

The Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) is an innovative therapy for autism that makes a difference in the treatment of very young patients. The method is now used successfully in Switzerland since 2010, notably in Geneva. An article appearing in Read more…