Research direction

1. Brain Science - Artificial Intelligence

The artificial intelligence and psychiatry platform applies emerging artificial intelligence technologies to the field of mental illness. By using artificial intelligence to collect and organize mental illness data, develop intelligent data processing tools and new wearable non-drug treatment equipment to assist doctors in Intelligent diagnosis and personalized treatment. The Institute plans to establish a Brain Science-Artificial Intelligence Research Center, which will carry out the following tasks.

1) Establishment of an intelligent auxiliary diagnosis and treatment system for mental diseases: mainly based on the data of inpatient electronic medical records, including clinical symptoms, past history, medical history, psychological assessment, neuroimaging, brain function detection and pathological examination data, establish a large database, combine Mathematical models and machine learning are used to build artificial intelligence systems to assist clinicians in diagnosing mental illnesses, formulating treatment plans and evaluating curative effects, as well as assisting in medical insurance cost control and management. Through the processing, analysis and modeling of big data, the system will continue to learn and optimize to achieve the purpose of individual prediction, and to extend the overall diagnosis and treatment model from the field of mental illness to other disease fields, and to improve the overall medical level through data sharing. Medicine, academia, and enterprises cooperate in development, and realize the benign industry-academia transformation from research and development to market promotion and application and then back to research and development.

2) Research and development of new treatment equipment: develop ultrasonic therapeutic apparatus, AI intelligent efficacy monitoring APP and related wearable devices, etc., to provide more low-cost, convenient and effective medical services for patients with mental diseases, such as depression and anxiety disorders. These wearable devices can also help patients understand their health status, while medical staff can track patients' daily activities and mood changes through smartphone applications, and predict patient prognosis based on big data.

2. Clinical Psychiatry

Based on the national key clinical specialties (Psychiatry) and the Psychiatry departments of 20 affiliated hospitals of Wenzhou Medical University as clinical bases, the school has established a clinical research center for mental diseases, explored the pathological mechanism of the occurrence and development of mental diseases, and sought objective and credible biological diagnosis markers/indications and developed new therapeutic drugs/methods. The research center will carry out the following specific research:

1) Establish an epidemiological investigation and research network for depressive disorders, and establish a medical care and management model for community intervention and rehabilitation of depressive disorders. In the near future, focus on research on women's perinatal depression, find out early evaluation and identification indicators of postpartum depression, establish a medical care network from monitoring and prevention during pregnancy to guiding treatment after delivery, and develop perinatal depression identification tools suitable for Chinese cultural characteristics. Reduce the incidence of perinatal depression and improve the cure rate and quality of life of patients.

2) Build a clinical sample database for patients with severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and create a platform for schizophrenia clinical research and translational medicine research. Based on this research platform, a clinical sample database and collaborative research network covering the Psychiatry Department of Corning Hospital Group and more than 20 affiliated clinical hospitals will be constructed to realize the sharing of achievements and resources of collaborative research network units.

3) Use unified international assessment standards and electronic databases to conduct cohort studies and case-control studies on mental disorders, aiming to establish a specific objective index system for the diagnosis and efficacy prediction of related diseases. At the same time, it cooperates with the Center for Basic Research on Mental Disorders and the Center for Artificial Intelligence Research, and uses the advantages of big data to carry out in-depth research on pathogenesis, drugs and non-drug interventions.

4) Carry out community-based early intervention research on mental illness in the elderly, collect and analyze the clinical characteristics, diagnostic procedures and treatment plans of outpatient cases, and provide a scientific basis for evaluating the practical application of Alzheimer’s prevention and treatment guidelines. Establish a community network and a public service center to distribute peace-of-mind wristbands for the elderly with GPS positioning to prevent patients from getting lost, understand their health status and treatment, improve their quality of life, and collect big data for clinical research on Alzheimer’s.

3. Biological Psychiatry/Neurobiology

The etiology of many Psychiatric diseases is unknown, which is a fundamental obstacle that obstructs their diagnosis and treatment. Therefore, basic scientific research on the pathogenesis of psychiatric diseases is particularly important. In addition, basic scientific research is also the source of the development of new treatments and new drugs for mental diseases. From basic to clinical is a recognized humanistic, ethical, safe and feasible medical scientific research process. The Center for Basic Research on Mental Disorders will be the core part of the school, and the following research work focusing on five research directions will be carried out: Neurodevelopment, Synaptic Plasticity and learning and memory, sensory information processing, Mental Diseases and Neural Stem Cells.

Taking transgenic animal models and pathological animal models as research objects, using Neurobiology, Neuroelectrophysiology, Neuroimaging and animal behavior and other research methods, from the molecular, cellular, systemic, overall and behavioral levels, to explore common mental diseases, Such as the pathogenesis of autism, depression, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's disease, and cooperate with clinical research centers to study the intervention and treatment of these common mental diseases; carry out cellular and molecular immunology research of the nervous system to explore The role of glial cells in the regeneration of the central nervous system and higher functional activities of the brain, such as emotional and cognitive functions.

4. Psychopharmacology

Psychopharmacology research is carried out by closely combining research methods and techniques such as neurobiology, biological psychiatry and pharmacology. While conducting in-depth research on the genetic and molecular mechanisms of neural signal transduction, synaptic function and neural circuits, the new concepts, techniques and methods obtained are translated into research on the pathogenesis of psychiatric diseases, diagnosis and the search for new drug targets to facilitate the solution of relevant clinical problems. Combined with the existing foundation and advantages of growth factor and neuropsychiatric research in the growth factor team of the School of Pharmacy, the introduction of Professor Xu Haiyun as the team leader focused on the occurrence and development of growth factors in depression, cognitive dysfunction, addiction and other diseases. The role of growth factors in the development process is to explore the potential drug targets of growth factors in psychiatric diseases. Meanwhile, combined with clinical research resources, to carry out clinical evaluation research of growth factor protein drugs, expand new indications and develop new treatment strategies.

5. Psychosomatic Medicine

Like heredity, physiology, biochemistry, immunity and other factors, social and psychological factors play a certain role in the occurrence, development, treatment and prevention of diseases. On the contrary, special physiological changes or diseases also have a certain impact on people's psychological activities. Therefore, the influence of physiological, psychological and social factors on the occurrence, development and consequences of physical and mental diseases is one of the most prominent problems in modern medicine. Focusing on the above problems, the college team has carried out a series of in-depth and systematic research on "psychosomatic diseases". The research team mainly studies the physiological, pathological and susceptibility gene polymorphisms related to psychosomatic diseases (liver disease, digestive system disease, coronary heart disease, drug dependence, depression, sleep disorders, etc.); The study of gene-psychology-environment interaction, to explore the relationship between genes, psychological factors, environmental factors and the clinical characteristics of psychosomatic diseases, to improve the further understanding of the pathophysiological mechanism of psychosomatic diseases. In addition, we study the pathophysiological mechanism, neuroprotective mechanism, animal model and cognitive function of patients with psychosomatic diseases, in order to explore the possible mechanisms of the occurrence and recurrence of psychosomatic diseases.

6. Mental health of children and adolescents

As the future of national development, the healthy development of children and adolescents is not only an important goal of my country's public health construction, but also a strategic need for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. However, the occurrence of various types of mental disorders in children and adolescents has seriously hindered the healthy growth of children and adolescents and has become a major public health problem. According to incomplete statistics from relevant institutions in China, the incidence of autism among children in my country has reached 1%, and it is increasing year by year. The incidence of Internet behavioral addiction represented by Internet game addiction among adolescents has reached as high as 10%. The occurrence of these mental disorders not only causes pain for children, but also imposes a heavy economic burden on families. Therefore, it is urgent to carry out research on the pathogenesis, intervention and treatment of various mental disorders in children and adolescents.

The Children and Adolescent Mental Health Research Center will combine the rich clinical resources of Wenzhou Medical University in southern Zhejiang to systematically explore the pathogenesis of some children and adolescents' mental disorders from the molecular, cellular and neural circuit levels, and actively carry out multi-center cooperation to explore potential The target of drug therapy is to transform research results into patented technology that can be used in clinic. Among the many mental disorders of children and adolescents, the focus will be on autism (Autism) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, ADHD).

1) Children with autism: The clinical research on the role of adhesion factors and local protein synthesis in children with autism will be carried out with the intersynaptic adhesion factor and local protein synthesis disorder as the breakthrough point. The main research directions are: 1. The role of intersynaptic adhesion factors (mainly neuroligin3, neuroligin4) in the pathogenesis of autism in children and its molecular mechanism; 2. The clinical study of autism-like symptoms in Fragile X syndrome and basic research; 3. Basic and clinical research on the influence of local protein synthesis disorder on neural circuit development.

2) Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Integrate the resources of affiliated hospitals, establish a clinical sample database for children with ADHD, and conduct multi-center prospective, randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical drug and non-drug treatments. Using neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI to carry out a series of studies on ADHD, initially establish an ADHD image prediction model, and provide a strong basis for finding objective diagnostic criteria for ADHD. Carry out research on comprehensive intervention modes including parent training, EEG biofeedback therapy, balance instrument training, executive function training, and social life skills training to promote the improvement of ADHD clinical medical services.