Thomaz Bastiaanssen has been awarded the 2023 VENI Grant of NWO/ZonMw. Congratulations! His project is titled: 

Examining microbiome-immuno-metabolic pathways in depressive and anxiety disorders

Depressive and anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental disorders and the leading cause of disability globally. Long-term prognoses are challenging, patients present widely heterogenous symptoms, available treatment options are insufficient. Recent research shows that the gut microbiome, all microorganisms in the intestinal tract, is a promising target to diagnose, prevent and treat mental disorders, including anxiety and depressive disorders and ameliorate their somatic complications.

The microbiome influences the host brain by synthesizing and modifying metabolites that reach the blood metabolome. Numerous blood metabolites that impact mental health, including immunomodulatory compounds (e.g., histamine, butyrate, propionate, acetate), neuroactive compounds (e.g., glutamate, tryptophan, kynurenine) and neurotransmitters (e.g., GABA, dopamine, serotonin) are the product of joint human and microbial metabolic processes, (co-metabolism).

While this makes host-microbial co-metabolism a potentially attractive therapeutic target, we lack the structured biomolecular understanding necessary to develop such treatments. This project aims to uncover the precise metabolic pathways and processes where host-microbial co-metabolism takes place and to subsequently understand their role in mental health.

In this project, Thomaz will first develop a bioinformatic framework to map out and enable the analysis of joint human and microbial co-metabolism: Co-met pathways, a free, open-source resource to study joint host-microbial metabolism.

Then, the co-met pathway framework will be applied to the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA) cohort in Amsterdam UMC. Together, this allows for an integrated multi-omics bioinformatics analysis of the role of joint host-microbial co-metabolism in anxiety and depression.

This project is expected to uncover novel and confirm known routes through which the microbiome can affect host mental health, thus furthering our biomolecular understanding and uncovering potential therapeutic targets. The co-met pathway framework will be freely available and applicable beyond the microbiota-gut-brain axis and will enable mechanistically oriented integrated analysis in the broader host-microbiome field.

More information on the Veni grant and other laureates can be found on the website of NWO: Veni 2023 | NWO