Translational Psychoneuroscience
Research group of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
The mind, nervous system, and immune system interact mutually. It is the aim of our research to identify and characterize these interrelationships. We focus on autoimmune processes in psychiatric disorders, as well as autoimmune mechanisms causing neurodegeneration in psychiatric disease. Psychiatric diseases can be associated with autoantibodies against intracellular and membrane-surface antigens. The spectrum of autoantibody-associated psychiatric symptoms and disorders has been continuously and dramatically expanded by scientific progress over the last few years. The spectrum of autoantibody-associated psychiatric syndromes and symptoms and disorders has been continuously and dramatically expanded by scientific progress over the last few years.
It is essential that we optimize the phenotyping of patients and deepen our knowledge of disease mechanisms. The significance of autoantibodies in serum or cerebrospinal fluid in conjunction with psychiatric symptoms and syndromes is barely understood, and has not yet been systematically investigated.
Overarching goals
The overarching aim of our research group is to characterize the frequency, significance and spectrum of psychiatric symptoms associated with autoantibodies and having a potential biological basis offering us novel insights into the pathophysiology and therapy of these patients thanks to neuroimaging, electroencephalographic measurements, cerebrospinal fluid analysis, and neuropsychological techniques. Through these methods we want to unravel immune signatures and detect novel membrane-bound and intracellularly-located neural and synaptic antigens as targets for autoantibodies associated with psychiatric symptoms. As a further aim we want to discern the significance of associated autoantibodies for the phenotypology and pathophysiology of psychiatric diseases and in particular demential disorders. A major focus will be to describe and understand cognitive dysfunction and memory impairment in patients with autoantibody-associated psychiatric syndroms. Furthermore, we are interested in fundamental research questions concerning the interaction between the nervous and immune system and its role in the development of psychopathology.
Selection of planned projects
- Multicentric, prospective register of patients for the analysis of cerebrospinal fluid in psychiatric patients (Cerebrospinal Fluid Analysis in Psychiatry = CAP)
- retrospective data evaluation of patient data concerning the frequency and type of neural and paraneoplastic autoantibodies in patients with psychiatric symptoms
- Identifying neural cell-surface autoantibodies and proteomic validation in atypical dementia versus Alzheimer´s dementia (NAB-DEMENTIA)
- Investigation of neural and paraneoplastic autoantibodies and their significance in delirium patients (project of the planned study FINDERI = Find delirium risk factors)
- Investigation on in vivo biomarker of the locus coeruleus functionality in patients with cognitive impairment (MARK-LC-COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT)
- Early identification and phenotyping of prodromal and early dementia with Lewy bodies via clinical and monoaminergic markers and glial autoantibodies: EARLY-DLB
Scientific collaborations
internal
- Dr. C. Lange, PD Dr. C. Bouter - Forschungsgruppe interdisziplinäre nuklearmedizinisch-psychiatrische Früherkennung und Differentialdiagnostik von Demenzen, Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Universitätsmedizin Göttingen
- PD Dr. R. Goya-Maldonado - Labor für systemische Neurowissenschaften und Bildgebung in der Psychiatrie, Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Universitätsmedizin Göttingen
- PD Dr. B. Malchow - Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Universitätsmedizin Göttingen
- Prof. Dr. C. Riedel - Abteilung für Neuroradiologie, Universitätsmedizin Göttingen
- Dr. med. M. Sadlonova - Klinik für Psychosomatische Medizin und Psychotherapie, Klinik für Thorax-, Herz- und Gefäßchirurgie, Universitätsmedizin Göttingen
- PD Dr. Dr. B. H. Schott - Forschungsgruppe Lernen und Gedächtnisforschung in der Psychiatrie, Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Universitätsmedizin Göttingen
- Prof. Dr. J. Wiltfang, Dr. H. Klafki, Dr. H. Esselmann, PD Dr. J. Vogelgsang - Forschungsgruppe Molekulare Biomarker für die prädiktive Diagnostik neurodegenerativer Erkrankungen, Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Universitätsmedizin Göttingen
- Dr. Benedict Breitling, Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Universitätsmedizin Göttingen
- Prof. Dr. O. Wirths - Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Universitätsmedizin Göttingen
- Prof. Dr. I. Zerr, PD Dr. D. Fitzner - Klinik für Neurologie, Universitätsmedizin Göttingen
- Dr. C. Timäus, Asklepios Fachklinikum Göttingen, Göttingen
external
- Prof. Dr. C. Elger, Prof. Dr. C. Helmstaedter, Prof. Dr. R. Surges - Klinik für Epileptologie, Universitätsklinikum Bonn
- Dr. D. Luedecke - Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg Eppendorf
- Priv.-Doz. N. Melzer, Dr. C. Gross - Klinik für Neurologie und Institut für translationale Neurologie, Universitätsklinikum Münster
- PD Dr. A. Neyazi - Klinik für Psychiatrie, Psychotherapie und Sozialpsychiatrie, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover
- Prof. Dr. M. Otto - Klinik für Neurologie, Universitätsklinikum Halle
- Dr. M. J. Betts, Dr. D. Hämmerer - Institut für kognitive Neurologie und Demenzforschung Universität Magdeburg, Magdeburg.
Contact
Research group leader
Priv.-Doz. Dr. Niels Hansen
+40 551 398493
niels.hansen(at)med.uni-goettingen.de
Doctoral students
- Aaron Levin Juhl
- Alina Isabel Rediske
- Insa Maria Grenzer
- Irinia Günther
- Iryna Krasiuk
- Katharina Packroß
- Tobias Titsch
- Yaldah Noori