Our Mission: Personalized Psychiatry.
Our work points in a translational fashion to the issue of heterogeneity, overlap and interdependence of major psychiatric syndromes as currently defined by DSM. While some of this overlap might be due to limitations in precision of diagnostic ascertainments in humans and limitations in specificity to a disorder in animal model studies, an alternative and more compelling explanation is that the genetic and neurobiological structure of psychiatric disorders is modular in a Lego-like fashion, with building blocks in different permutations leading to different clinical disorders. There is a strong need for a move towards comprehensive empirical profiling and away from categorical diagnostic classifications.
We believe a worthwhile goal for the future is to diagnose and treat patients in an individualized fashion, based on their profile of genes, biomarkers, and quantitative phenotypic data, using low-dose rational polypharmacy to get synergistic benefits and minimize side-effects.