Schizophrenia is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder, most commonly diagnosed in late teens/early 20s, that affects around 1% of the population. The disorder places a major burden on sufferers, carers and health services with high suicide rates in sufferers (approximately 7%) and consuming roughly 30% of NHS spending on adult mental health. In England alone, the economic cost of schizophrenia is estimated at £12 billion per year. Psychotherapy is not an effective treatment on its own, and although there are some effective medications, those that are licenced are often poorly tolerated. There is therefore a large unmet need to identify new treatments.
The five-year project, led by Professor Jack Mellor from Bristol’s School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience in the Faculty of Life Sciences, will use new data from large genetic studies of schizophrenia to identify common biological causes for cognitive changes. These genetic studies point towards changes at synapses, the connections between nerves, and their adaptability – a process that underlies learning and memory.
Professor Mellor said: “This award pulls together expertise from a number of collaborators at the University of Bristol as well as researchers from Cardiff, London and Chicago. The interdisciplinary approach is exciting and we hope will lead to new insight into the common biological changes that occur in schizophrenia. We are also partnering with pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs to target the processes we identify in what could be a step change in our approach to the diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia”.
Jack Mellor and the team at Bristol are part of the Bristol Neurosience Network, supported by Elizabeth Blackwell Institute.