Johann Steiner

Deputy Director of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg

1. Neuroinflammation and glial pathology
The course of schizophrenia and affective disorders with onset in early adulthood, exacerbations and remissions, shows similarities to autoimmune disorders and leads to the speculation of similar pathogenetic components. Several studies reported a subtle progressive loss of brain tissue without indications of neuronal loss. This may be caused by glial degeneration. Using tissue from the Magdeburg Brain Collection, marker-proteins for neuroinflammatory processes and glial pathology are investigated in parallel to blood samples from acutely ill and remitted patients.

2. Biomarkers of psychiatric disorders
According to ICD-10, the diagnosis of schizophrenia and affective disorders is currently still based on psychopathological ratings – like 100 years ago. This procedure is highly subjective. Therefore, serum and CSF biomarkers for the early diagnostic and prognostic assessment of schizophrenia and affective disorders are tested in cooperation with the Institute of Biotechnology, University of Cambridge (Prof. Bahn) and the Institute of Biology, University of Campinas (Prof. Martins-de-Souza).

Keywords: schizophrenia – affective disorders – psychoimmunology – postmortem-research – biomarkers

Location: OVGU (FME)

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