Developing more advanced and cost-effective tools for diagnosing schizophrenia, improving the quality of life of patients (and their families), and optimizing treatment and monitoring strategies for this mental illness are the main objectives of the European project VOLABIOS (Validation and Comparative Multi-Omics Benchmarking of Fluid-Derived Volatilomics Biomarkers for the Prevention and Early Detection of Schizophrenia), which brings together 18 partners from 11 countries - including the University of Coimbra (UC) - and has just received funding of eight million euros under the Horizon Europe program.
 

The research project officially kicks off on January 1, 2025, with the ambition of revolutionizing the early diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia, a chronic mental illness that affects approximately 1% of the world's population (around 80 million people) and is among the 15 leading causes of disability globally, reducing life expectancy by 10-15 years.
 

From the University of Coimbra, research teams coordinated by Bruno Manadas (Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (CNC-UC) and Centre for Innovative Biomedicine and Biotechnology (CiBB)), Nuno Madeira (Institute of Medical Psychology of the Faculty of Medicine of the UC, Center for Biomedical Imaging and Translational Research (CIBIT) and Local Health Unit of Coimbra) and Joel Arrais (Department of Computer Engineering of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the UC and Center for Informatics and Systems of the University of Coimbra (CISUC)) are participating in VOLABIOS.
 

Over the four and a half years of the project, the researchers from this multidisciplinary consortium will work on two different fronts: on the one hand, studying the molecular mechanics of schizophrenia; and, on the other, using new technologies to facilitate early diagnosis of the disease. Involving different scientific approaches and integrating tools from mobile spectrometry and artificial intelligence, the researchers hope that it will be possible to “accurately and rapidly identify chemical and biochemical signals that serve as biomarkers for schizophrenia, improving diagnostic accuracy, reducing timeframes and paving the way for earlier interventions, a deeper understanding of the disease and better outcomes for patients”.
 

The project will be carried out in multiple stages, ranging from the retrospective analysis of 9 million medical records to the clinical study of more than 3000 patients (from six medical centers across Europe), who will be monitored regularly over a period of 18 to 36 months to assess changes and validate the results.
 

The research carried out at the University of Coimbra will focus particularly on “recruiting patients for the study, as well as sharing the results of proteomics (large-scale protein profiles) in the context of the first psychotic episode,” explains Bruno Manadas, researcher at CNC-UC.
 

In 2029, at the conclusion of the VOLABIOS project, “we hope to support the early diagnosis of schizophrenia based on molecular information, using a panel of biomarkers that can be applied using different technologies and artificial intelligence,” concludes the researcher.

 
Rui Marques Simões w/CNC-UC