Guts to beat depression

In the ZonMw Open Competition 2024 round, a total of 29 research teams have been selected to receive funding from a total budget of €24 million. One project with Amsterdam UMC and MoodLabMeets researcher have been awarded: Guts to Beat depression.

 

Depressive disorders cause significant disability, mortality and economic impact, with current treatments often inadequate. The gut microbiome - a diverse community of microbes in the digestive system - shows strong, replicable links to depression. This project aims to explore gut microbiota and their products as potential new interventions for depression.

 

The goal is to identify bacterial targets for diagnosing, treating, or preventing depression. This project will extend research to multi-cohort, longitudinal studies, examining temporal and causal relationships and considering ethnic and sex differences. It will also explore interactions between microbial groups and validate promising candidates in preclinical models.

 

The project aims to recommend prebiotics and probiotics for clinical testing, addressing the need for better depression treatments. Results will benefit both academic and industrial partners in food and pharmaceuticals.

 

About the ZonMw Open Competition programme
The ZonMw Open Competitionis designed for both fundamental and applied research, encouraging collaboration between different scientific disciplines and sectors.The programme aims to provide space for curiosity-driven and creative collaboration among researchers, leading to groundbreaking science. The program specifically targets researchers from two or more disciplines who synergistically promote excellent team science. Applications are assessed and ranked based on the criteria of relevance and quality. Knowledge utilization and participation are also key evaluation points.

 

Researcher:

Dr. Anja Lok (Amsterdam UMC)

Dr. Robert Kraaij (Erasmus MC)

Prof. Stanley Brul (University of Amsterdam)

Dr. Rick Quax (University of Amsterdam)

Dr. Aniko Korosi (University of Amsterdam)

 

2 PhD students in MoodLabMeets:

Eugenia Natasha and Rivka Vollebregt