IN-SENS is an interdisciplinary, cutting-edge European industry-academia collaborative effort for a novel training of scientists in molecular psychiatry with the prospect of discovering the biology of schizophrenia and actively promote drug discovery. Mental illnesses are a major burden to patients, relatives, and public health worldwide. IN-SENS therefore aims to profoundly change the academic-industry research landscape in European psychiatry by an unprecedented, innovative strategy.
The extended intra- and intercellular signalling pathway of disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 (DISC1), the best characterized gene known to cause schizophrenia and other chronic mental illnesses (CMI), will be used as a molecular Rosetta stone for this purpose.
Focussing on the extended DISC1 pathway in its different aspects, including clinical psychiatry nucleates research and avoids the outspreading of research groups. IN-SENS forms a novel infrastructure and an interweaved network of research groups, ESRs and industry maximizing lateral transfer of knowledge and promoting the emergence of novel products, like novel diagnostic and therapeutic targets or tools.
IN-SENS has formed 4 research teams. The trainees of these research teams will be working across the different laboratories with obligatory secondments, thus enabling them to create a multidisciplinary working attitude.
- Research Team 1: Molecular and cellular biology
- Research Team 2: Functional modelling of the extended DISC1 pathway
- Research Team 3: Genetics & Diagnostics
- Research Team 4: Translation of DISC1 pathways into human mental illness
