Department of Pharmacodynamics, Semmelweis University (SE), Budapest, Hungary
Leader: Dr. Gabriella Juhász
Team: Dr. Péter Petschner, Dr. Gábor Hullám, Dr. Nóra Eszlári, Dr. Xénia Gonda, Zsófia Gál, Prof. György Bagdy, Dániel Baksa
The youngest department of the Faculty of Pharmacy was founded in 1979. Its main responsibility was the enforcement of the biological and medical education in the teaching of pharmacy students. Pharmacology and other biology-based pharmacy courses still the bases of the Institute’s educational profile. In addition, the Institute gives home for high-quality pharmacological research, of which the main profile is the pharmacology of the central nervous system. Since 2013 the researchers at the Institute won several grants that helped to found three research groups: MTA-SE Neuropsychopharmacology and Neurochemistry Research Group, the NAP2-SE (former NAP-A-SE) New Antidepressant Target Research Group and the SE-NAP2 (former MTA-SE-NAP B) Genetic Brain Imaging Migraine Research Group. The first two mainly examine the interactions of genetic and environmental factors in depression to identify new drug targets for the treatment of this disorder. The third one investigated the neural response (brain activity) related to stress resilience and pain perception in people with migraine and in healthy control subjects. Two research groups have got additional financial support from the Hungarian Brain Research Program 2.0. to continue these investigations.
The previously mentioned studies and their results gave the basis of the now established TRAJECTOME project.
Additional information: https://semmelweis.hu/gyogyszerhatastan/en/
Abiomics Europe Ltd., Budapest, Hungary
Leader: Dr. Péter Antal
Team: Dr. András Gézsi, András Millinghoffer, Dr. Bence Bolgár, Dr. Tibor Temesi
Abiomics Europe Ltd. (Abiomics, Hungary) is a contract research organization providing consultancy and services for the integrated use of data and knowledge in chemoinformatics and bioinformatics, for genetic data analysis, and for medical decision support. Abiomics has joint cooperation with multiple leading academic research groups and participated in multiple pharmaceutical projects related to personalized medicine.
The software solutions from Abiomics are focusing on the intersection of biomarker analysis, personalized medicine, and drug discovery by integrating and extending methods from the fields of statistics, decision theory, artificial intelligence, machine learning, text-mining and semantic technologies. Abiomics develops software tools and offers services in the following areas:
- Systems-based biomarker discovery, which offers a unique view over minimal, but sufficient sets of diagnostic markers for complex conditions.
- Large-scale information fusion in drug discovery, which integrates chemical, biological, clinical and personal information sources.
- Genetic data analysis, which includes study design, data engineering, data analysis and interpretation.
- Biomedical decision support systems, which guide the optimization of information gathering in diagnosis, therapy selection or adaptation of a protocol.
Additional information: http://www.abiomics.eu/
The Department of Public Health Solutions, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland
Leader: Dr. Mikko Kuokkanen
Team: Dr. Hannu Mäkinen, Nita Mettinen, Teemu Paajanen
The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) studies, monitors, and develops measures to promote the well-being and health of the population in Finland. They gather and produce information based on research and registered data. They also provide expertise and solutions to support decision-making. They serve various parties: the government, municipal and provincial decision-makers, actors in the social welfare and health sector, organisations, the research community, and the public. They help their customers and partners to secure quality of life for Finns in a fair but dynamic welfare society.
The Department of Public Health Solutions offers its customers solutions for the promotion of public health. The objective is that the entire population is as healthy as possible. The work is based on scientific evidence.
The Department utilises opportunities brought about by technology to make better use of national data resources and versatile research traditions. This way it can offer even better public health solutions to various parties involved in Finnish society.
Additional information: https://thl.fi/en/web/thlfi-en, https://thl.fi/en/web/thlfi-en/about-us/organisation/departments-and-units/department-of-public-health-solutions
Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS) – Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Leader: Dr. Josep Roca
Team: Dr. Isaac Cano, Ruben Gonzalez Colom, Euridice Alvaro, Dr. Miquel Bioque, Mrs. Antonieta Also, Mrs. Carme Herranz, Mr Jordi Piera, Dr. Marta Cascante
The Consorci Institut D’Investigacions Biomediques August Pi i Sunyer is a public research centre dedicated to translational research in the field of biomedicine. Its mission is to integrate state of the art basic research and quality clinical research. Founded in 1996, IDIBAPS is formed by the Catalan Ministry of Economy and Knowledge, the University of Barcelona’s Faculty of Medicine, the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona and the Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques de Barcelona of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (IIBB-CSIC). The institution is very active in scientific research, in 2016 there were more than 1.500 original publications in high impact factor scientific magazines.
Hospital Clinic de Barcelona is a university tertiary hospital that employs about 4,000 professionals with a long reputation of excellence in care provision, training and research at national and international level. HCPB has been consolidating a dual model, both as a Community Hospital, serving the population in the area of reference and as a Tertiary Hi-tech centre developing leading-edge research in several lines at national and international levels. During the last decade, HCPB has developed an ambitious program for chronic patient management promoting both care coordination and use of information and communication technology to support integrated care services in the entire area of 540,000 inhabitants. Besides, the institution is leading different EU projects involving Systems Biology approaches and deployment of technology for health.
Additional information: https://www.clinicbarcelona.org/en/idibaps, https://www.hospitalclinic.org/
Department of Psychiatry, University Medicine Greifswald (UMG), Greifswald, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Germany
Leader: Dr. rer. med. Sandra Van der Auwera-Palitschka
Team: Prof. Hans Jörgen Grabe, Sarah Bonk, Kevin Kirchner
The Department of Psychiatry in University Medicine Greifswald in addition to clinical duties focuses on research of mental disorders. AG Genetics in Greifswald investigates whether risk genes of different psychiatric disorders are also linked to other diseases in order to understand the origin and relationship of these diseases and to be able to identify people with an increased risk of disease at an early stage. The studies investigate psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, but also major “common diseases” such as type 2 diabetes, obesity or cardiovascular diseases. The other examined factor is to what extent the environment poses an additional risk to develop mental disorders or whether there are genetic variants that only pose a risk for these diseases under certain environmental effects. This is particularly important for research into depression, which is one of the most widespread mental illnesses. The research team collaborates with other working groups to combine data from different biological levels (e.g. genetics, gene expression, metabolome or MRI) in order to further understand the pathophysiology of mental disorders.
Additional information: http://www2.medizin.uni-greifswald.de/psych/