Grants and Healthy Brain data

André Marquand receives ERC consolidator grant

André Marquand is conducting research into the use of biomarkers — specific substances that can relay information about a person’s medical state. They have brought about a revolution in diagnosis and personalised treatment in many areas of medicine. Psychiatry is clearly behind in that regard. Mental disorders are still mostly diagnosed on the basis of symptoms simply because useful biomarkers are not available. This is because the means to analyse mental disorders at all imaginable levels — from neurobiology to behaviour — are still lacking.

Towards precision medicine in psychiatry

Marquand: “I want to develop a new toolbox that can be used to predict the start and the outcome of mental disorders on the basis of biomarkers. Biomarkers that signal the variation in the structure and organisation of the brain, based on the brain scans of over 40,000 people. I have developed a ‘brain chart technology’ which can function as a platform for both the shared and distinct characteristics of the mental disorder for individual people. A platform and a model that not only simulates different clinical brain states, but which can also test and model potential interventions.”

The innovative approach of Marquand, who is associated with the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, could have far-reaching consequences. He uses depression and bipolar disorders to illustrate the approach he envisions. “For these disorders, we want to examine whether we can predict the development towards resilience or risk. It will bring the application of precision medicine within the reach of psychiatry. It will not only provide us with a better understanding of mental disorders, but it will also make early, personalised interventions and preventive treatments possible.”

In this ERC-funded project, we aim to use neuroimaging data from the Healthy Brain Study to measure various aspects of brain structure and function at the level of the individual. In addition, we plan to acquire smartphone-based digital phenotyping data to measure moment-to-moment behavioural activity. The goal of the project is to develop analytical tools to integrate these complementary sources of information and to predict functioning at the level of the individual.