The Youth-GEMs

Dr. Sinan Guloksuz serves as the Vice Coordinator and Work-Package Leader (Data Inference) in the Youth-GEMs (Gene Environment Interactions in Mental Health TrajectorieS of Youth) to conduct research into the genetic and environmental factors of mental health in young European people. The European Commission has granted a total of 9.7 million euros for this project. Within the Work-Package Data Inference, our Exposome and Mental Health Research Group aims to explore how different factors like genes, environment, and experiences influence the resilience and the transition to mental ill health in young people. The project aims to identify mental health trajectories and investigate the role of environmental and genetic risk across development. This will be done by applying machine learning to a new Pan-European clinical cohort, integrating exposome scores, and using novel polygenic scores.

The OPHELIA

Dr. Sinan Guloksuz serves as the Work-Package Co-lead (Gene-Environment Interaction) in the ZonMw-funded project “Outcome of Psychosis: Heterogeneity Explained by Long- lasting Individual Attributes: OPHELIA” with a total budget of €1.5 million. Within the Work-Package Gene-Environment Interaction, our Exposome and Mental Health Research Group aims to execute the next steps with the longitudinal gene and environment research of psychosis, focusing on heterogeneity in the early course in relation to a controlled medication intervention within the HAMLETT trial.

The MINDSET

Dr. Sinan Guloksuz and Dr. Nicolas Crossley lead the Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS) 2023 Research Harmonization Project: MINimum Data standards for Schizophrenia and the EnvironmenT (MINDSET) that gathers more than 50 researchers from 20 countries across five continents. The MINDSET aims to set minimum standards for the characterization of the environment (exposome) in psychosis for researchers whose main research interest is not the environment, and could collect environmental information as potential moderators, mediators or confounders, such as in studies of neuroimaging, genetics, clinical cohorts. One of the main aims of this project is also to create networking opportunities for early career researchers with leading experts in the field of psychosis research.