– ABOUT

australian Psychiatric Research Knowledge Bank

The National Mental Health Commission of Australia estimates that about 1 in 5 people suffer from a mental disorder, while globally, mental disorders are in the top 10 individual leading causes of disease burden, with no global reduction of the burden since 1990.

Despite the prevalence of psychiatric conditions, there remains a limited understanding of their biological underpinnings, restricting the development of effective diagnostic and treatment strategies. There has also been no substantive change in treatments for the major mental illnesses (depression, anxiety, bipolar and schizophrenia) for over 70 years.

Bioplatforms Australia and Phenomics Australia have partnered with the Consortium for Preclinical Psychiatric Research (CPPR) to develop the Australian Psychiatric Research Knowledge Bank. Driven by Australia’s leading neuroscience and psychiatric researchers and clinicians this national initiative is deploying large-scale omics and phenomics approaches and create standardised data for banked human and preclinical psychiatric samples relevant to schizophrenia, aligning mood disorders and healthy controls.

OBJECTIVES

This Initiative aims to create standardised data for protein and gene expression changes identified across animal, cellular, blood and human brain tissue models relevant to schizophrenia. The Consortium for Preclinical Psychiatric Research goal is to link gene or protein expression changes in the brain to specific behavioural outcomes.

Through large scale proteomics data generation, powered with transcriptomics data and high throughput phenotyping, the data created in this initiative will enable:

      • the creation of a nation first comprehensive and collaborative multi-omic data set to interrogate for causative pathways of complex psychiatric disorders;
      • accelerate research by using omics technologies generated across a national consortium rather than targeted gene or protein studies;
      • compare model types with human post mortem brain samples to enable the identification of common biological changes that may then be targeted therapeutically;
      • provide large scale standardised data to better equip researchers to address the current diagnostic and treatment crisis for psychiatric disorders;
      • strengthen global connectivity and collaborations by enabling integration of data into developing global omics datasets for mental disorders.

PARTNERS

The Australian Psychiatric Research Knowledge Bank Initiative is a partnership between the Consortium for Preclinical Psychiatric Research (CPPR), Phenomics Australia, and Bioplatforms Australia.

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advisory committee members

Rachel Hill – Monash University

Suresh Sundram – Monash University

Thomas Burne – University of Queensland

Tim Karl – Western Sydney University

Tertia Purves-Tyson – NeuRA (Neuroscience Research Australia)

Bernie Pope – Australian BioCommons

Ralf Schittenhelm – Monash University

Jim Hennessy – Phenomics Australia

Sarah Nisbet – Phenomics Australia

 

CONTACT US

Project Manager

Aude Touffu – Bioplatforms Australia
atouffu@bioplatforms.com

Consortium for Preclinical Psychiatric Research Lead

Rachel Hill – Monash University
rachel.hill@monash.edu

Consortium for Preclinical Psychiatric Research Lead
and Head of the Department of Psychiatry of Monash University

Suresh Sundram – Monash University

Partnerships and Engagement Lead

Kelly Scarlett – Bioplatforms Australia
kscarlett@bioplatforms.com