Barbara Franke

As a Professor of Molecular Psychiatry and head of the Researchlab for Multifactorial Diseases, my research focuses on unraveling the genetics of multifactorial diseases. I’m particularly interested in the identification of genetic risk factors for psychiatric disorders, especially ADHD, major depression, dyslexia and the autism spectrum. I have published on genome-wide (linkage and association) approaches to gene-finding in these disorders, both as member and leader of international collaborations. Beyond gene-finding, I am interested in the characterization of the effects of genetic risk factors for psychiatric disorders at the molecular, cell, and brain level. For this, my lab employs bioinformatics approaches, we use induced pluripotent stem cell-derived iNeurons and animal models (Drosophila melanogaster), and perform imaging genetics studies. I lead several international consortia, i.e. the International Multicenter persistent ADHD Collaboration (IMpACT) on ADHD across the lifespan, the EU-funded Aggressotype project on aggression in child-psychiatric disorders, the EU-funded International Training Program MiND on the etiologic overlap between ADHD and autism, and the ECNP Network ADHD across the Lifespan. I'm also a founding member and member of the central support team of the ENIGMA Consortium on imaging genetics and lead the ENIGMA ADHD Working group. In addition, I am a work package leader in the EU funded projects TACTICS (on compulsivity), IMAGEMEND (on the use of imaging and genetics in psychiatric diagnostics), and CoCA (on comorbidity mechanisms in ADHD), and I participate in the IMI2 project PRISM.