Abstract

Psychosis is a core feature of severe mental illness, yet its biological basis remains poorly understood. This talk presents a cross-species research programme combining behavioural paradigms, computational modelling, circuit neuroscience and immunology to identify mechanistic treatment targets. We developed a paradigm to measure hallucination-like perception in both humans and mice, revealing key roles for dopamine and acetylcholine. We also established a novel mouse model of autoimmune psychosis, showing how brain-reactive antibodies can disrupt circuits and behaviour and how antipsychotic drugs modulate autoimmune processes. Ongoing work in humans and mice investigates how neural and immune mechanisms interact to drive psychosis and shape perception.

Bio: Katharina Schmack received her medical and doctoral degrees from Charité, Berlin in 2009. She then completed her postdoctoral training, clinical scientist fellowship and psychiatry specialization at Charité, Berlin. In 2018, she was awarded a research fellowship from the German National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina, and joined Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, as a research investigator. In September 2021, she opened her own lab at the Francis Crick Institute, London. As a Group Leader, her appointment is shared with the Division of Psychiatry of University College London and the North London NHS Foundation Trust. Her research focuses on psychosis. Her group investigates the neural circuits and immune processes giving rise to hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms. Using a cross-species approach, they study both patients and mice with behavioural tests, computational models, and in-vivo measures and manipulations.