Multi-omics studies in depression

Depression is the most common psychiatric disorder disease with a high lifetime prevalence (15%) but with limited and ineffective treatment options. Effective pharmacological discoveries and interventions require understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying depression, which, currently remain elusive.

As nature and nurture are equally important in case of depression, it is important not only to explore the disease genomics, which remains stable throughout the life but also those molecular layers that are also influenced by environmental factors and thus may be potentially modifiable, e.g. epigenomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics and microbiome, to understand the underlying pathogenesis and to discover novel treatment targets. By performing large scale multiomics analyses we have identified potential biomarkers at several molecular layers that may aid in the discovery of novel and more effective treatment options.