Prof. Dr. Dr. med. univ. Elisabeth Binder

Research focus:

The overarching aim of our department research is to contribute to a new, biology-based taxonomy of psychiatric disease and to develop treatments and preventive strategies targeted at the underlying biological trajectories based on such mechanistic understanding. Our current projects include the following interlinked topics: - Genetic and epigenetic factors underlying risk and resilience to adverse life events - FKBP5 - a novel target for stress-related disorders - Biomarker-based approaches for a new taxonomy of disease - Transdiagnostic, multilevel characterization of psychiatric patients to identify common biological signatures - Characterization of molecular, cellular and system trajectories of risk and resilience following exposure to adverse life events across development.

Key words: Psychiatric disorders, stress, gene x environment interactions, epigenetics

GSN students:

Graduated: Dr. Laura Leuchs, Dr. Lilia Papst, Dr. Maximilian Schneider, Dr. Signe Penner-Goecke

Selected publications:

Zannas AS, Arloth J, Carrillo-Roa T, Iurato S, Röh S, Ressler KJ, Nemeroff CB, Smith AK, Bradley B, Heim C, Menke A, Lange JF, Brückl T, Ising M, Wray NR, Erhardt A, Binder EB, Mehta D. Lifetime stress accelerates epigenetic aging in an urban, African American cohort: relevance of glucocorticoid signaling. Genome Biol. 2015 Dec 17;16:266.

Klengel T, Binder EB. Epigenetics of Stress-Related Psychiatric Disorders and Gene × Environment Interactions. Neuron. 2015 Jun 17;86(6):1343-57.

Arloth J, Bogdan R, Weber P, Frishman G, Menke A, Wagner KV, Balsevich G, Schmidt MV, Karbalai N, Czamara D, Altmann A, Trümbach D, Wurst W, Mehta D, Uhr M, Klengel T, Erhardt A, Carey CE, Conley ED; Major Depressive Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC)., Ruepp A, Müller-Myhsok B, Hariri AR, Binder EB. Genetic Differences in the Immediate Transcriptome Response to Stress Predict Risk-Related Brain Function and Psychiatric Disorders. Neuron. 2015 Jun 3;86(5):1189-202.

Mehta D, Klengel T, Conneely KN, Smith AK, Altmann A, Pace TW, Rex-Haffner M, Loeschner A, Gonik M, Mercer KB, Bradley B, Müller-Myhsok B, Ressler KJ and Binder EB. (2013) Childhood maltreatment is associated with distinct genomic and epigenetic profiles in posttraumatic stress disorder. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110(20): 8302-7.

Klengel T, Mehta D, Anacker C, Rex-Haffner M, Pruessner JC, Pariante CM, Pace TW, Mercer KB, Mayberg HS, Bradley B, Nemeroff CB, Holsboer F, Heim CM, Ressler KJ, Rein T and Binder EB. (2013) Allele-specific FKBP5 DNA demethylation mediates gene-childhood trauma interactions. Nat Neurosci. 16(1): 33-41.