Research Period:
FY2025-FY2029
Principal Investigator

Takahiro A. Kato
Professor & Chair, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine
Psychiatric disorders are thought to develop and progress through complex interactions between an individual's innate traits and temporary psychological states caused by stress and environmental changes. However, the relationship between these two factors and the molecular basis driving the transition of mental states remain unclear.In this study, we aim to comprehensively characterize the “state” common to psychiatric disorder by integrating diverse hierarchical data, including co-culture experiments using neurons and microglia-like cells derived from patient-derived iPS cells, multi-omics analysis, brain imaging data, and behavioral measurements.In particular, this study will develop a unique machine learning method to structure states that have not been classified to date and extract the biological and psychological factors driving their transitions. This is expected to enable the identification of new biomarkers for disease progression prediction and advance our understanding of the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorder.
Co-Investigator
Toshio Matsushima
Assistant Professor, Department of Neuro-psychiatry, Kyushu University Hospital
Daiki Setoyama
Assistant Professor, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Kyushu University Hospital
Naoki Honda
Professor, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine
Takatoshi Hikida
Professor, Laboratory for Advanced Brain Functions, Institute for Protein Research, The University of Osaka
Naoko Kuzumaki
Associate Professor, Department of pharmacology, Hoshi University