Personalized and Translational Neuroscience Lab (PanLab)
Our research integrates across five related themes:
Our research integrates across five related themes:
Human Imaging and Biotyping
Biotype-Guided Trials
Mechanistic Trials
Computation
Clinical and Field Translation
We believe that accelerating advances in precision medicine requires that we identify subtypes that are underserved by available therapies and treat each subtype in a better way than is available today. To this end, our strategy is to start with neural circuits that are implicated in the features of depression that contribute disproportionately to poor outcomes. For example, our research includes a focus on the brain’s reward and cognitive control circuits. These circuits are the two most promising opportunities for developing a precision medicine approach to depression, representing neural ‘toe holds’ from which we can develop a detailed characterization of subtypes and generate and deliver personalized therapies. Disruption of these circuits implicates features of anhedonia and cognitive impairment that contribute to poor treatment outcomes, poor psychosocial function and higher risk for suicide.
We leverage technology and computational approaches. We have developed a new system for detecting different biotypes of depression. Data and technology are further integrated with novel therapeutics to match biotypes to treatments and, ultimately, to preventions and platforms for promoting wellness.
We are motivated to translate our findings into practice. We feel a sense of urgency bridge the translational divide between the insights we discover and how these insights are applied in the clinic and in the real world. To improve this situation, we carry out trials that partner with real-world clinics and clinical programs. To accelerate immediate translation we have launched the first-of-its-kind translational precision mental health clinic.
How We Make A Difference
How We Make A Difference
Through the translation and dissemination of our research findings we are working to make a difference in the field. Findings from each study each provide an important piece in developing a gold standard biomarker development framework for testing mechanistic and novel therapeutic targets for depression.
We are addressing the clear disparity in progress being made in the development of precision medicine for psychiatry compared to other specialties. For psychiatric disorders such as depression, there is a lack of consensus on classification, diagnosis, and treatment that stems from an incomplete understanding of the neurobiological processes involved. Our focus on neural circuits, subtypes based on biotypes and tailoring treatments to those subtypes is changing this situation.
Depression affects 350 million people across the world. That is one in every 8 people in the U.S. It is the most prevalent of mood disorders and the leading cause of disability worldwide. Depression is the single biggest disruption to time management and productivity at work. In the U.S., depression exacts an annual cost of $201 billion. Death by suicide has also tripled in young people over the past decade. Yet we do not treat depression like a crisis.
Our public health goal is to at least halve the burden due to depression in our lifetime.
Current subtypes of depression are based on clinical stratification without consideration of neural circuit information. Diagnosis relies on patient self-reports, and two patients meeting diagnostic criteria for major depression might share very few symptoms. It is almost certain that the current diagnosis conflates several types of brain dysfunctions. As a result, treatment decisions must proceed by trial-and-error; not surprisingly, only one-third of individuals who seek treatment recover.
Findings from our studies show that translating neuroscience information can significantly improve the accuracy of treatment choices. We are dedicated to ongoing discovery and forging the roadmap towards a personalized medicine approach to mental health.
Our findings form a foundation for expanding beyond depression in the future.
Credit: Dickson Chow, Art Director
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Williams PanLab has two locations:
Williams PanLab has two locations:
US Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care System - Palo Alto (VAPAHCS)
Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC)
Sierra Pacific VISN 21
3801 Miranda Ave
Palo Alto, CA 94304
Nearest Caltrain Station: California Ave (Caltrain schedule here)
Free Stanford Marguerite Shuttles from VA Palo Alto to our Stanford office: VA Tram