Article Review:Modeling psychiatric disorders: from genomic findings to cellular phenotypes
Falk, A., Heine, M., Harwood, A., Sullivan, P., Peitz, M., Shen, S., Brustle, O., Sun., Y., Glover, J., Djurovic, S., Posthuim., D. (2016). Modeling psychiatri
A paper by Falk et al (2016) presents the outcome of a critical review of the obstacles inherent in modeling psychiatric disorders, possible solutions to address these challenges and how stem cell research and IPSC technology can be employed in coming up with a framework for the therapeutic manipulation of these disorders. Particularly, the authors conduct a search for cellular phenotypes and models in the modern day SCZ genetics alongside the comprehension of the SCZ-related animal models. In this paper, Falk et al also discusses the current day capabilities as well as the need for further developments and inherent obstacles in stem cell programming, alongside the development of the relevant phenotype which could be effectively translated into disease models and subsequently into treatments for therapeutically disorders.
The authors subsequently establish reliable evidence in the use of in vitro concept in treating psychiatric disorders. They also goes on to observe that new systems and developments in the medical disciplines including stem cell research, integrative robotic systems, proper controls and standardization is poised to solve many issues that have been an obstacle in finding effective therapeutic means for psychiatry disorders. In order to improve healthcare delivery, the authors suggest that to enhance treatments for psychiatric patients, it is important for medical researchers and other stakeholders to consider the genetic aspect of the patient population whereby; the generic risk is to a large extent polygenic, alongside the a diversity of various common variants with low effect, couple with the rare types that harbor a larger impact.