GMC - Behavioral Screen

Coordinator:		Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wurst
Institution:		Helmholtz Zentrum München, Institut für Entwicklungsgenetik
Homepage:		www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/en/idg

Most adult neuropsychiatric diseases have complex phenotypes and are polygenic in nature. There is a considerable overlap of disease phenotypes, e.g. cognitive phenotypes occur in autism, schizophrenia, mental retardation, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. There is also extensive comorbidity between various diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular, metabolic diseases and major depression.
To understand the genetic factors underlying neuropsychiatric diseases and normal complex behaviors we will dissect complex phenotypes into components, called endophenotypes. To this end we will apply a range of well established neurobehavioral paradigms which are known to be indicative of endophenotypes associated with anxiety, depression, mood disorders, dementia, schizophrenia, autism and ADHD on mutant mouse lines. Since complex behaviors are additionally influenced by external parameters such as stress, exercise and environmental structure, we will also apply appropriate challenge tests on a selected number of mutant mouse lines. Our goal is to identify, in collaboration with other partners of the NGFN network, pathways and genes involved in the pathogenesis of neuropsychiatric diseases.