Last updated: Oct 2024

From bench to bedside:
Translating basic research findings into new medical treatment regiments

Mental health challenges have become a severe burden to our society. In 2021, more than 150 million people lived with a mental disorder in the WHO European Region alone. Although the cause of the problem is complex and includes factors such as genetic predisposition, lifestyle, social factors, and traumatic experience, a common denominator is the manifestation of changes in neuronal signal transmission. Psychiatric medications that aim to adjust imbalance in synaptic signaling have only moderate-to-weak efficacy, high rates of side effects, and low remission rates, with 75% of patients relapsing within one year. Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify new therapeutic interventions that modulate neuronal signaling in an alternative way.

Founding of Syntropic Medical (https://www.syntropicmedical.com/) in 2023, focusing on treating depression with 60-Hz light entrainment based on our previously observed microglia-mediated enabled removal of the perineuronal nets (PNN).

On-going:

  • In the frame of the ERC Proof-of-Concept, we expand on our 60-Hz discovery and evaluate the therapeutic potential in a preclinical mouse model of anxiety disorder.
  • Investigation of AMPA/NMDA receptor distribution in human brain synapses.  
  • Engage with persons-with-lived-experience to pass from purely ill-defined symptom-focused research towards patients-orientated aspects.