IMAGEMEND is a study with focus
on development of effective imaging
tools for diagnosis, monitoring
and management of mental disorders.

Project Leader

Prof. Ole A. Andreassen Phone: +47 23 02 73 50 / +47 22 11 78 43 Fax: +47 23 02 73 33

Project Staff

Institute presentation

NORMENT was established in 2013, as a centre of excellence. NORMENT’s research profile is built upon a collaboration between University of Oslo (host institution), University of Bergen and Oslo University Hospital. It is integrated with the KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research.

In Search of Underlying Pathology

At NORMENT – KG Jebsen Centre we strive to find answers to why some people develop perceptual disturbances, delusions, deep depressions or elated, manic phases, the core symptoms of severe mental illness.

The symptoms of schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorder (BIP) and their high heritability have been known since antiquity. Still, the disease mechanisms are mostly unknown and the current descriptive diagnoses lack reliable biomarkers.

Psychotic disorders inflict burdens at the emotional, social and financial levels for the individual patients, their families and the society. It is thus imperative to make progress in our understanding of the underlying pathology of these disorders, and factors related to clinical outcome.

The Missing Heritability

Important and encouraging developments have occurred during the last years, with findings of true genetic susceptibility factors and the emergence of new and exciting tools for psychiatric research.

Major technical developments have enabled systematic studies of the human genome and brain with ever more sophisticated methods, as well as knowledge about environmental risk factors. Still most genetic factors remain unknown (“the missing heritability”), abnormal interactions between different brain regions (neuronal networks) are undiscovered, and predictors of outcome are scarce.

A Multi-Disciplinary Expertise

At NORMENT KG Jebsen Centre we will build upon our well established and integrated thematically oriented research organization, to benefit from our multi-disciplinary expertise and large clinical samples with extensive clinical phenotype characterization and state-of-the-art experimental and neuroimaging methods.

Project leader

Barbara Franke, PhD Phone: +31 24 3614017

Project staff

Jan K. Buitelaar, MD, PhD Phone: +31 24 3610655

Janneke Dammers (research assistant) Phone: +31 24 3618929/68903

Institute presentation

The Radboud University Medical Centre is a leading Dutch institute for medical research. The Neuropsychiatry Research Group, including the department of Cognitive Neuroscience, the department of Psychiatry and the Karakter Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Centre are specialized in top-level clinical care and research in neuropsychiatric disorders, with a special emphasis on neurodevelopmental disorders like ADHD and autism spectrum disorders – in children and adults. The Nijmegen outpatient clinics see about 2000 new children and adolescent patients and 800 new adult patients a year.

Research within the neuropsychiatric centres is part of the Donders Institute, a world-renowned centre of research expertise in neuroscience. Over 500 researchers work at the Donders on unravelling the mechanisms underlying brain function. We have full access to research magnetic resonance imaging facilities (MRI) of 1.5 Tesla, 3 Tesla and 7 Tesla as well as a mock scanner at the Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging within the Donders Institute.

The department of Human Genetics of the RUNMC is an internationally top-ranking genetics group. It is the largest centre for genetics research, clinical diagnostics and genetics counselling in Europe. Biobanking is fully automated from DNA-isolation to sample storage and tracking. We have full access to advanced Affymetrix genotyping facilities and are amply experienced in next generation sequencing. In fact, we were among the first to implement next generation exome sequencing into clinical diagnostics. Three Life Technologies 5500XL sequencers and an Ion Torrent Personalized Genome Machine Sequencer (Life Technologies) are available to us for genome sequencing and candidate resequencing, respectively. A total of 12 bioinformaticians and 3 genetic statisticians are based at Human Genetics for data analysis.

Project leader

Dr. Hreinn Stefansson Phone: +354-5701947 Fax: +354-5701901

Project staff

Dr. Andres Ingason Phone: +354-5701900 Fax: +354-5701901

Dr. Stacy Steinberg Phone: +354-5701900 Fax: +354-5701901

Bragi Walters Phone: +354-5701900 Fax: +354-5701901

Dr. Magnús Örn Úlfarsson Phone: 354-5701900 Fax: 354-5701901

Institute presentation

deCODE genetics is a global leader in analyzing and understanding the human genome. Using its unique expertise and population resources, deCODE has discovered genetic risk factors for dozens of common diseases. The purpose of understanding the genetics of disease is to use that information to create new means of diagnosing, treating and preventing disease.