Translational Neuroimmune Psychiatry Research Program
The Translational Neuroimmune Psychiatry Program is a new research enterprise in the department of psychiatry led by Dr Baum, its inaugural director. The lab seeks to discover novel, clinically useful biomarkers through interrogation of immune molecules using high-throughput biochemical and histochemical techniques. The lab also seeks to interrogate the neuroethical implications of biomarker discovery.
The lab is working on a novel platform to discover new auto-antibody syndromes that present with psychiatric symptoms that phenocopy idiopathic bipolar disorder and psychotic disorders. The lab is also interested in uncovering why some people with autoimmune disorders like lupus or infectious encephalitis have psychiatric symptoms and some do not, and how to discover better predictive biomarkers of immune-mediated rare medication adverse events.
Neuroethics is a highly interdisciplinary, burgeoning field that breaks down traditional barriers between neuroscience, neuroengineering, law, history, philosophy, sociology, nursing, social work, psychiatry, neurology, neurosurgery, bioethics, biomedical innovation, genetics, and human rights among others, to rigorously interrogate the many implications of advances in brain sciences. In particular, the lab focuses on the Neuroethics of biomarkers in the clinical neurosciences.
