Symposium
Session Room: M1
Session Room: M1
Monday, June 29, 02:50 PM – 04:05 PM
Symposium 30:
Multi-omic stratification lifts the curtain on treatment response for treatment resistant patients
Multi-omic stratification lifts the curtain on treatment response for treatment resistant patients
Treatment resistance remains a major challenge in clinical practice and continues to impose a substantial burden on patients and healthcare systems alike. A key limitation of current treatment paradigms lies in their insufficient recognition of the individuality of patients and their disorders. Traditional “one-size-fits-all” approaches often overlook the biological heterogeneity underlying psychiatric illnesses, thereby contributing to inadequate treatment outcomes. In recent years, the rapidly increasing availability and integration of multi-omics data—encompassing genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics—have opened new avenues for precision medicine. These data enable more refined patient stratification and hold the promise of identifying the most effective therapy for each individual, including those previously deemed treatment resistant according to conventional clinical procedures. This symposium explores how the latest molecular insights can be translated into clinical reality, demonstrating the impact of multi-omics stratification within deeply phenotyped randomized controlled trials (RCTs). By focusing on metabolomic, transcriptomic, epigenomic, and genomic perspectives, the symposium highlights how molecular data can meaningfully inform therapeutic decision-making and improve outcomes for real-world patients.
The symposium opens with an overview of the multi-omics concept and its relationship with treatment resistance and treatment response. Prof. Dr. Bernhard Baune presents recent findings from metabolomic profiling and transcriptome-based network analyses that elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying treatment resistance and responsiveness in psychiatric disorders. Drawing on data from RCTs and clinical cohorts—such as studies comparing ketamine with midazolam and evaluating celecoxib augmentation—he demonstrates how integrative molecular data can guide patient stratification and predict treatment outcomes through machine learning. His work illustrates how leveraging metabolomic profiles can enhance treatment success even in a priori treatment-resistant samples, thus bridging the gap between molecular biology and clinical efficacy.
Following this, Dr. Evelien Van Assche discusses emerging evidence on gene-regulatory mechanisms, particularly DNA methylation and microRNA (miRNA), as biomarkers for treatment response and stratification in depression. She presents recent findings on the dynamic changes in DNA methylation associated with personalized, response-guided dosing of ketamine. Moreover, she elaborates on the concept of immunomethylomics—an area of DNA methylation research with growing relevance for understanding and predicting treatment outcomes. Dr. Van Assche also highlights causal effects In that age-dependent variations in DNA methylation may be a result of stressful adolescent life events and contribute to differential responses to treatment augmentation with celecoxib. Finally, she examines the role of miRNAs as key post-transcriptional regulators, emphasizing their potential utility in trauma-related stratification among psychiatric patients.
The final presentation, delivered by Prof. Dr. Claudia Pisanu, shifts the focus to the genomic level. She discusses the clinical potential of polygenic risk scores (PRS) in improving patient stratification and optimizing therapeutic interventions. Through a comprehensive analysis of shared genetic architectures across psychiatric disorders and related phenotypes, she demonstrates how leveraging pleiotropy—the influence of genetic variants on multiple traits—can reveal genetic determinants of treatment response. This genomic perspective complements the molecular findings discussed earlier, underscoring the integrative power of multi-omics approaches to enhance personalized medicine in psychiatry.
The symposium opens with an overview of the multi-omics concept and its relationship with treatment resistance and treatment response. Prof. Dr. Bernhard Baune presents recent findings from metabolomic profiling and transcriptome-based network analyses that elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying treatment resistance and responsiveness in psychiatric disorders. Drawing on data from RCTs and clinical cohorts—such as studies comparing ketamine with midazolam and evaluating celecoxib augmentation—he demonstrates how integrative molecular data can guide patient stratification and predict treatment outcomes through machine learning. His work illustrates how leveraging metabolomic profiles can enhance treatment success even in a priori treatment-resistant samples, thus bridging the gap between molecular biology and clinical efficacy.
Following this, Dr. Evelien Van Assche discusses emerging evidence on gene-regulatory mechanisms, particularly DNA methylation and microRNA (miRNA), as biomarkers for treatment response and stratification in depression. She presents recent findings on the dynamic changes in DNA methylation associated with personalized, response-guided dosing of ketamine. Moreover, she elaborates on the concept of immunomethylomics—an area of DNA methylation research with growing relevance for understanding and predicting treatment outcomes. Dr. Van Assche also highlights causal effects In that age-dependent variations in DNA methylation may be a result of stressful adolescent life events and contribute to differential responses to treatment augmentation with celecoxib. Finally, she examines the role of miRNAs as key post-transcriptional regulators, emphasizing their potential utility in trauma-related stratification among psychiatric patients.
The final presentation, delivered by Prof. Dr. Claudia Pisanu, shifts the focus to the genomic level. She discusses the clinical potential of polygenic risk scores (PRS) in improving patient stratification and optimizing therapeutic interventions. Through a comprehensive analysis of shared genetic architectures across psychiatric disorders and related phenotypes, she demonstrates how leveraging pleiotropy—the influence of genetic variants on multiple traits—can reveal genetic determinants of treatment response. This genomic perspective complements the molecular findings discussed earlier, underscoring the integrative power of multi-omics approaches to enhance personalized medicine in psychiatry.