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October 3, 2016
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October 11, 2016
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Research Field
  • neuroscience and mental health
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My WorkWe undertake proteomic studies of plasma from high quality cohorts (ALSPAC) at early childhood stages and predict adult psychiatric outcomes from these studies.
We also study post-mortem brain from control, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder.
The work is done in collaboration with UCD PI Gerard Cagney.

The most recent plasma biomarker is under review in JAMA Psychiatry. We have identified biomarkers in the age 11 plasma samples which predict psychotic disorder at age 18.

Other publication from our group are published in the highest impact psychiatry journals - Molecular Psychiatry, Translational Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry.

Please contact david cotter (drcotter@rcsi.ie) if you are interested.
Outline of Potential Research projectsPsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and major depression are among the most expensive disorders in terms of quality of life and societal cost. There is an urgent need to improve our understanding of the pathophysiology of these disorders so that we can identify those at risk and treat subjects earlier. This is associated with improved outcome. Such early identification is facilitated by targeting those at ultra-high-risk-for-psychosis (UHR) as 25-30% subsequently develop psychotic disorder and 50-60% develop depressive disorder. To this end biomarkers are sought.

There is growing evidence for an inflammatory component to these disorders with implications for early identification and treatment. We have added to this literature by demonstrating that the complement pathway is dysregulated in the age 11 plasma samples of subjects who subsequently develop psychotic disorder at age 18. The complement pathway has central roles in inflammation and synaptic plasticity. Our findings support a novel focus on the complement pathway as a target for early therapeutic and preventative strategies in these disorders.

Our study:
In UHR baseline samples we now propose to clarify the relationship between measures of the complement pathway and more general plasma protein expression to outcomes of:

Study 1: transition to first episode psychosis, and,

Study 2: transition to the broader psychiatric outcomes of major depression and anxiety disorders.

This will inform us if measures of the complement pathway and other proteins expressed in the plasma at first presentation at UHR for psychosis will contribute to predictive models for these disorders.

Our study will be based on two large internationally collected cohort of subjects; one used for discovery, the other for validation.

This project is available for the PhD student. The student will learn the skills of biomarker discovery, proteomic methods, bioinformatic skills, paper write up and statistical analysis. The project will be based in RCSI and undertaken in UCD in collaboration with Conway PI Gerard Cagney.