Who are we?
The PSYchiatric disorders and COmorbidities caused by pollution in the MEDiterranean area (PsyCoMed) project proposes a MSCA Staff Exchange program that aims to characterise the role of anthropogenic pollutants in the Mediterranean area as a risk factor of neuropsychiatric disorders and associated pathologies, and the role of neuroinflammatory responses in the disease progression. The consortium comprises 11 beneficiaries (8 academic, 3 SMEs) and 3 Third Countries partners putting together complementary expertises in environmental and life sciences (academics) and analytical biology or natural therapeutic phytocompounds (SMEs). Through a multiscale (from molecular to clinical science), multi-modal (from mechanistic to behavioural approaches), and inter-sectoral strategy, PsyCoMed will correlate the effects of pollutants on psychiatric symptoms with alterations of inflammatory pathways in animal models and psychiatric patients. We will investigate neural mechanisms underlying pathological changes in vitro and in in vivo preclinical models. Natural substances with therapeutic potential will be tested for their ability to restore healthy mechanisms and alleviate pathological symptoms in animal models. PsyCoMed offers a unique framework to build a network synergy by bringing together themes and scientific practices in the Mediterranean area. The partners will share knowledge/know-how through secondments and workshops in support of PsyCoMed scientific objectives. This will improve the skills of staff members and their opening to the academic and private sectors. By proposing common protocols and experimental design, the participants will foster standardisation of experimental procedures and diffusion of good laboratory practise. At a global level, the consortium will acquire the capacity to tackle complex neurobiological challenges, while building long-lasting collaborations. PsyCoMed will provide decision-makers with the ground for public health orientations with societal impact.
What are we doing?
To address the complex interactions between environmental pollutants, the immune system and the brain, various tasks are defined that operate at different levels of analysis and require complementary expertise. The PsyCoMed strategy relies on the key combination and exchange of knowledge and know-how towards complex problem solving, significant advances in understanding the role of the environment on health, and improving health care, especially for the most vulnerable groups. All consortium members have the expertise and facilities needed to reach these different goals, which makes the scientific objectives both achievable and realistic.
- O1: Understand if and how various disease-predisposing aquatic and air pollutants are the origins ofdifferent neuropsychiatric phenotypes conditions across the Mediterranean area.
- O2: Verify whether any pollutant-induced effects linked to psychiatric disorders and comorbidity occur in a sexually dimorphic and/or age-dependent manner.
- O3: Decipher the neuroinflammatory mechanisms triggered by pollutants in the central nervous system, and their consequences for the development and maintenance of neuropsychiatric disorders
- O4: Decipher the nature of the neuronal plasticity and neural circuit activation occurring in the brain areas affected by pollutants and neuroinflammation.
- O5: Explore the therapeutic potential of bioactive natural molecules from the Mediterranean area to modulate inflammatory processes and their effects on behavioural symptoms.
- O6: Develop 3i (international, intersectoral, interdisciplinary) exchanges for young researchers’ training.
Focus on Staff Exchanges
The knowledge sharing activities will directly contribute to achieving the aims of the research and innovation activities. The objectives of the knowledge sharing activities are to:
- Train a pool of highly-skilled researchers to become key experts in (i) animal behavioural study, with a special focus on psychiatric-like and pain symptoms, (ii) neuroinflammatory signalling, (iii) alterations of neural cells and neuronal circuits after pollutant exposure.
- Expose staff members to different methodologies, sectors and disciplines, and initiate staff members to the process of development and marketing of innovative tools and therapeutic agents.
- Integrate the role of high-throughput industrialized process in the experimental strategy.
- Position the consortium as a pool of resources distributed across the PsyCoMed network, at beyond across the Euro-Mediterranean area, at the service of complex research objectives.
Knowledge sharing will be achieved through individual (secondments) and collective (conferences and workshops, online interactions) activities. The newly acquired knowledge through secondments will be subsequently reinvested in the sending institution as the PsyCoMed project will allow acquisition of new skills in experimental techniques that are not available in the partner laboratories. In addition to its scientific importance, the contribution of the private sector is critical to (1) develop and exploit novel tools to screen for pollutant contamination and their effects, particularly on the endocrine system, and (2) develop and commercialize two families of therapeutic natural phytocompounds, flavonoids and terpens, with anti- inflammatory properties. PsyCoMed will build stronger intra-institutional cooperation that will amass complementary approaches and models to create a critical network that is more competitive in future European/International research. Complex technologies using major equipment cannot be implemented in all partner institutions and the alternative is to share expertise to access the other’s facilities. It will strengthen ongoing collaborations with world-renowned scientists, and help to start new collaborations with other partners, therefore boosting networking with both national and international research centres and SMEs for biomedical/pharmacological research implementation.
Secondments are planned and adapted to match the project requirements and scientific objectives, the acquisition of new skills and know-how by the researchers, and to improve career opportunities through the mobilities undertaken. The secondments have three distinct objectives that can be achieved either by visiting a partner laboratory or hosting an expert from a sending institution:
- Acquisition of new knowledge and know-how in one’s field of expertise:
- Partners with expertise in behaviour will deepen their knowledge by implementing new behavioural tests.
- Partners with expertise in cell/molecular biology will gain new competences in epigenetics and proteomics
- Development of new sets of expertise:
- Interdisciplinary transfer of competence across different levels of analysis, i.e. different MSCA keywords.
- Inter-sectoral acquisition of new methodological know-how, e.g. to develop new screening assay for studying endocrine disruptors at the origin of pathological animal behaviour.
- Standardisation of procedures for reproducibility and dissemination, and implementation of common ethical guidelines:
- Standardise experimental protocols in preclinical research.
- Establish common standards through exchanges (for standardization/transfer of new competences in preclinical research.
- Standardise diagnosis methodology: reciprocal visits for comparing human cohorts from various origins.