Identification and Validation of Brain Relevant Blood-Based Biomarkers for Suicide in Major Depressive Disorder
2024 Blue Sky
Amount Awarded: $1,500,000
Focus Areas: , Genetic

Adolfo Sequeira, Ph.D.
University of California, Irvine
Inside the Research
This project aims to address the complex issue of suicide by developing blood-based biomarkers to assess suicide risk, particularly in individuals with Major Depressive Disorder (M.D.D). Utilizing post-mortem and clinical blood samples, the study will analyze gene expression and methylation patterns, integrating this multimodal data with machine learning algorithms. The goal is to identify suicide-specific molecular biomarkers, enhancing our understanding of immediate (gene expression) and enduring (methylation) molecular changes associated with suicide risk. This collaborative effort strives to establish effective predictors for suicide risk in clinical populations.