Biomarkers in Neuropsychiatric Disorders: from Molecules to Diagnosis and Intervention

Overview

Our main focus is the identification of new biomarkers for brain diseases, leading to an accurate and early diagnosis to improve patient management and promoting the design of patient-tailored preventive and therapeutic interventions. 

We aim to identify biological markers that specifically reflect the onset of pathology in patients with neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases. Assay platforms will be developed as tools to elucidate the unsolved clinical, genetic and pathological heterogeneity observed in these disorders that seriously affect the efficacy and outcome of clinical trials.

Both targeted and “OMICS” methodologies will be applied (in close collaboration with the Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry group), under a translational perspective, to the study of brain disorders, generating tools for diagnosis, prognosis and progression markers, crucial for planning patient’s assistance and management of economic resources.

The team members work in different locations, namely Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra (CHUC) and Faculty of Medicine (Polo III). Available resources include: Single Molecule Array (SiMoA) SR-X platform, manual and fully automated immunoassay equipments, HPLC apparatus, Thermocyclers, DNA automated sequencer (Beckman-Coulter) and MiSeq platform (Illumina).

The research developed in the group relies on collaborative efforts between fundamental researchers and clinicians for access to human biological samples and clinical data. The team is integrated in quality control programs and international consortia that defines standard methodologies for sample collection, data analysis and information storage.