CPFT leads national project to improve mental health treatments with biomarker data
A pioneering new data platform led by researchers at CPFT and the University of Cambridge is set to transform access to molecular data on mental health, which will help to develop targeted new treatments.
The Open Psychiatry Project, funded by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Medical Research Council (MRC) and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), will create the UK’s first open, publicly accessible platform for exploring how genes and molecules influence mental health. It will be a crucial resource for researchers, clinicians, health partners, and people with lived experience to understand more about mental health conditions and how best to treat them.
This £2.3M project is led by Dr Mary-Ellen Lynall, CPFT psychiatrist and neuroimmunologist at the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with Dr Ellen McDonagh from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI).
Mary-Ellen said: “We’re building a platform that accelerates scientific discovery and puts people with lived experience at the heart of research. By connecting data safely and transparently, we can better understand mechanisms at the molecular level and move closer to truly personalised treatments for mental health conditions.”
They are working to enhance the Open Targets Platform, already a major global resource for drug and treatment target discovery, by integrating a wide range of molecular datasets relevant to mental health. Analysing these datasets will provide new insights into how mental health conditions develop and progress, and areas to focus and personalise treatments. The Open Psychiatry Project will develop a dynamic, interactive website offering accessible summaries of potential biomarkers, drug targets, and treatments to help everyone working in mental health.
In parallel, the project will develop a new interface using pioneering, data federation technology to protect privacy and confidentiality whilst securely connecting real-world biomarker and health data from across the UK. This will enable sensitive datasets held in different trusted locations to be analysed together without ever leaving secure locations where they are safely stored and hosted.
Mary-Ellen added: “Together, these complementary components will make it possible to discover and analyse mental health molecular data in a secure, accessible way.”
The project team brings together experts from CPFT and the University of Cambridge Department of Psychiatry, including Professor Rudolf Cardinal, Dr Martin Burchell, Dr Anna Moore, and Professor Graham Murray. They will work with national partners at Swansea University, the University of Edinburgh, Health Innovation East, commercial data federation partner Bitfount, and a diverse group of researchers with lived experience.
Importantly, the platform will be co-designed with people who have lived experience of mental health conditions. A dedicated ‘second-skin’ interface will be developed to make the site accessible and engaging to empower people affected by mental illness to explore the latest scientific discoveries and shape research in neuroscience and mental health.
By linking molecular discoveries to securely held real-world health data, the project will help researchers identify biological pathways and potential treatments more efficiently. This initiative supports the UK Government’s goal of making health data more accessible and ethically used to improve care and treatments, whilst protecting privacy and confidentiality for individuals.
Professor Lucy Chappell, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department of Health and Social Care and Chief Executive of the NIHR, said: “The NIHR and the Medical Research Council are leading the way in ensuring advances in data and research lead to improved care for mental health conditions. The Open Psychiatry project will help achieve the government’s ambition for world-class biomedical and health research and innovation. This data platform will help researchers identify more precise and effective interventions, resulting in faster access to new treatments and better support for patients and their families.”
