Afshin Samali is a co-founder of Cell Stress Discoveries Ltd, Professor of Biochemistry and Director of Apoptosis Research Centre at NUI Galway.

The role of Cell Stress Discoveries in the TREATMENT program is to identify protein biomarkers that are altered upon cellular stress induced by antipsychotic treatments. These biomarkers will be validated, and optimized to use as diagnostic indicators of metabolic syndrome and ER stress. This personalized medicine approach will enable differentiation between patients most at risk from toxic side-effects, and patients who are better able to tolerate treatment. The expertise of Cell Stress Diagnostics in developing ER stress diagnostic markers and new therapeutics for stress related diseases thus perfectly complements the strengths of the partners involved in the TREATMENT consortium.

1. TREATMENT project

• ESR15

  ESR15 will perform cell data integrative analysis, biomarker validation and tool development. The ESR will carry out an integrative omic analisis of cellular stress responses to antipsychotic treatment, following validation of identified protein biomarkers, implementation of methodological standarization protocols and tool development based on protein analysis. The ESR will use cellomics data from drug stressed cells and human blood samples to identify protein biomarkers of drug induced metabolic stress and the analysis of the biomarkers will be validated by the ESR on independent samples. The ESR will also work on the standarization of the analysis protocols and will develop a prototype diagnostic tool and test its applicability to other drug induced metabolic effects.