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Around 25% of people with depression have low-grade inflammation, which is unfavourable for treatment, but its’ cause is unknown. Short chain fatty acids (SCFA) may play a role in this: They reduce inflammation, but in depression, SCFAs and the bacteria that produce them are often low. New animal and human data suggest that especially one SCFA, called butyrate, is linked to depression severity and inflammation. In this project the scientists will assess the link of plasma SCFAs and various inflammatory mechanisms using a large existing database (400 patients and controls).

Psychiatric conditions like alcohol use disorder (AUD), Korsakoff syndrome (KS) and the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), are characterized by inhibitory control deficits and neurophysiological alterations. This project aims to develop transdiagnostic tool for assessing altered cortical activity in inhibitory control networks in clinical populations, combining inhibitory control measurements with data from neuromodulatory and neurophysiological techniques.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy achieves outstanding results in blood cancer treatment, however, lacks behind in solid cancers. Imbalanced CAR signaling may limit long-term T cell functionality: too weak activation leads to inactivity, while overly strong activation causes activation-induced T cell exhaustion. The CAR’s antigen-recognition domain is the initiator of T cell signaling. Artificial intelligence (AI) now enables targeted design of this domain with great potential for improvement.