Bio
 

Sinan Guloksuz — Genomic and exposomic drivers of mental health trajectories and resilience

Sinan Guloksuz, MD, PhD is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, and the Department of Psychiatry, Specialized Treatment Early in Psychosis (STEP) Program, Yale University School of Medicine.

With a background in clinical psychiatry and epidemiology, Dr. Guloksuz’s main research focus has been on understanding the mechanisms underlying mental health outcomes and investigating the contribution of exposome and genome to multidimensional behavioral and cognitive phenotypes in the general population cohorts and large case-control samples (EUGEI, EFPTS, EDSP, GROUP, TWINSCAN, NEMESIS-I/II, UK Biobank). The second body of his work has been in the areas of clinical trials and service research for psychosis spectrum disorder, in particular Early Detection and Prevention. To investigate Gene-Environment theories, Dr. Guloksuz’s research team has applied novel methods such as digital phenotyping, network models, and machine learning to make multiple contributions in areas including gene-environment interactions, psychosis, and transdiagnostic phenotypes.

To bridge the gap between genetics and environment in psychiatric research and acknowledge the multiplicity of interconnected environmental factors, Dr. Guloksuz has been the first investigator proposing the exposome paradigm for psychiatry and constructing a cumulative environmental score (environmental equivalent of polygenic risk score): the exposome score for schizophrenia. His team has successfully applied the exposome score for schizophrenia in several independent population and clinical datasets to improve risk prediction and test gene-environment theories.

His work has resulted in over 140 peer-reviewed publications, 12 book chapters, and awarded with international prizes from the European Psychiatry Association, World Psychiatry Association, European Accreditation Committee in CNS, and the Society of Biological Psychiatry. He currently serves as the Work-Package Leader (Gene-Environment Interaction) in the ongoing ZonMw-funded project: Outcome of Psychosis: Heterogeneity Explained by Long-lasting Individual Attributes (OPHELIA) with a total budget of € 1.5 million, and the Vice Coordinator and the Work-Package Leader (Data Inference) in the recently funded EU Horizon 2021 project: Gene Environment interactions in Mental health trajectorieS of Youth (Youth-GEMs) with a total budget of € 10 million. Dr. Guloksuz’s team aims to integrate exposomic, genomic, and epigenomic data to execute the next phase of gene-environment research to provide clues for potentially modifiable factors and mechanistic understanding to transform the prevention and treatment of mental disorders.   

Dr. Guloksuz’s contribution to the international scientific community also includes ongoing active roles in professional organizations, such as the Schizophrenia International Research Society, as well as editorial roles, such as the Associate Editor of the Nature Mental Health Research and the Editorial Board Member of the British Journal of Psychiatry, Frontiers in Psychiatry, and the PLOS One.

NCBI Bibliography: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1-Iq8dtFcLQA9/bibliography/public/