The Division of Molecular Neuroscience and the Division of Cognitive Neuroscience join forces in the endeavor to increase the understanding of human cognitive and emotional processes and to find new ways to treat psychiatric disorders. We use a wide range of methods ranging from molecular neuroscience in C. elegans to clinical trials.

The Division of Molecular Neuroscience is led by Prof. Andreas Papassotiropoulos and the Division of Cognitive Neuroscience is led by Prof. Dominique de Quervain. They share more than 20 years of scientific collaboration and numerous milestone publications in Science, Cell, Nature Neuroscience, Neuron and PNAS on the genetic basis of human cognitive and emotional functions. By using high-throughput genotyping and implementing comprehensive multi-locus, genome-wide statistical methods as well as functional brain imaging, they identified genes related to human memory. The ultimate goal is to increase the understanding of human cognitive and emotional processes in health and disease, and to contribute to the development of novel therapies. The latter goal is also being pursued through the implementation of cutting-edge technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR).