Research Areas
Prof. Bernhard Baune (MBBS, PhD, MD, MPH, MBA, FRANZCP) holds a
Professorial Chair of Psychiatry, is Director and Head of the Department of
Psychiatry and the Director of the Laboratory Division of Molecular
Neurobiology of Mental Health at the University of Münster, Münster, Germany
since 2019. Previously, Prof. Baune has been the Cato Chair and Head of
Department of Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Prof. Baune
is a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrist
(FRANZCP), he is a Professorial Fellow of the Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne
and also at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, The University of Melbourne,
Australia.
Prof. Baune is known for his extensive research program into the neurobiology of severe
mental illness and treatment response, specifically in mood disorders, cognitive dysfunction and
neuropsychiatry. He developed novel concepts and approaches in personalised psychiatry,
molecular psychiatry, prediction and biomarker research and pharmacological treatment research.
He is also well known for key research achievements in the field of the psycho-neuro-immunology
of psychiatric disorders.
He is currently the coordinator of two EU funded research consortia: firstly to investigate
the neurobiology and molecular foundations of treatment response (EraPerMed: PROMPT
consortium) in major depressive disorder and secondly to study the early detection and early
treatment of treatment resistance in major psychiatric disorders (MDD, Bipolar disorder,
Schizophrenia) (Horizon Europe: Psych-STRATA consortium). Moreover, he is the chair of the
ECNP European network Pharmacogenomics and Transcriptomics of Neuropsychiatric
Disorders. In addition, he is chair of the International consortium on the genomics of severe
depression and response to ECT in affective disorders (GenECT-ic). His research approach aims
at the discovery of novel treatment targets and eventually at personalising treatments in order to
make real-world differences to the lives of people with mental illness.
His research is nationally and internationally widely recognized, has been funded by >49
Million Euros (e.g., NHMRC - Australia, EU EraPerMed, Horizon Europe, DFG – Germany, Wellcome
Trust, UK). He has published more than >730 peer-reviewed articles, reviews and book chapters (H-
Index: 106 (scopus); >100,000 citations) including in leading journals such as Science, Nature,
Lancet, Nature Genetics, N Eng J Med, JAMA Psychiatry, Lancet Psychiatry, Mol Psychiatry, Biol
Psychiatry, Neuropsychopharmacology. He edited several textbooks in Psychiatry, most recently the
books “Personalised Psychiatry” (Elsevier), “Inflammation and Immunity of Depression” (Elsevier)
and “Cognitive Dimensions of Major Depressive Disorder” (Oxford University Press) and is author
on Complimentary Medicine in the Kaplan & Sadock's Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry: 50th
Anniversary Edition (10th).
Selected Publications
Amare AT, KO Schubert, ConLiGen Consortium, Baune BT (2018) A polygenic score for schizophrenia and HLA and inflammation genes predict response to lithium in Bipolar Affective Disorder. JAMA Psychiatry, Jan 1;75(1):65-74. IF15.307
Pardiñas AF, Holmans P, Pocklington AJ, Escott-Price V, Ripke S, Carrera N, Legge S, Bishop S, Cameron D, Hamshere ML, Han J, HubbardL, Lynham A, Mantripragada K, Rees E, MacCabe JH, McCarroll SA, Baune BT, Breen G, Byrne EM, Dannlowski U, Eley TC, Hayward C, Martin NG, McIntosh AM, Plomin R, Porteous DJ, Wray NR, Caballero A, Geschwind DH, Huckins LM, Ruderfer DM, Santiago E, Sklar P, Stahl EA, Won H, Agerbo E, Andreassen OE, Bækvad-Hansen M, MortensenPB, Bøcker Pedersen C, Børglum AD, Bybjerg-Grauholm J, Als TD, Djurovic S, Durmishi N, Giørtz Pedersen M, Golimbet V, Grove J, Hougaard DM, Mattheisen M, Molden E, Mors O, Nordentoft M, Pejovic-Milovancevic M, Sigurdsson E, Silagadze T, Søholm Hansen C, Stefansson K, Stefansson H, Steinberg S, Tosato S, Werge T, GERAD1 Consortium, Collier DA, Rujescu D, Kirov G, Owen MJ, O’Donovan MC, Walters MTR (2018) Common schizophrenia alleles are enriched in mutation-intolerant genes and in regions under strong background selection. Nat Genetics, 50(3):381-389 IF 27.959
Wray NR, Ripke S, Mattheisen M, Trzaskowski M, Byrne EM, Abdellaoui A, Adams MJ, Agerbo E, Air TM, Andlauer TMF, Bacanu SA, Bækvad-Hansen M, Beekman AFT, Bigdeli TB, Binder EB, Blackwood DRH, Bryois J, Buttenschøn HN, Bybjerg-Grauholm J, Cai N, Castelao E, Christensen JH, Clarke TK, Coleman JIR, Colodro-Conde L, Couvy-Duchesne B, Craddock N, Crawford GE, Crowley CA, Dashti HS, Davies G, Deary IJ, Degenhardt F, Derks EM, Direk N, Dolan CV, Dunn EC, Eley TC, Eriksson N, Escott-Price V, Kiadeh FHF, Finucane HK, Forstner AJ, Frank J, Gaspar HA, Gill M, Giusti-Rodríguez P, Goes FS, Gordon SD, Grove J, Hall LS, Hannon E, Hansen CS, Hansen TF, Herms S, Hickie IB, Hoffmann P, Homuth G, Horn C, Hottenga JJ, Hougaard DM, Hu M, Hyde CL, Ising M, Jansen R, Jin F, Jorgenson E, Knowles JA, Kohane IS, Kraft J, Kretzschmar WW, Krogh J, Kutalik Z, Lane JM, Li Y, Li Y, Lind PA, Liu X, Lu L, MacIntyre DJ, MacKinnon DF, Maier RM, Maier W, Marchini J, Mbarek H, McGrath P, McGuffin P, Medland SE, Mehta D, Middeldorp CM, Mihailov E, Milaneschi Y, Milani L, Mill J, Mondimore FM, Montgomery GW, Mostafavi S, Mullins N, Nauck M, Ng B, Nivard MG, Nyholt DR, O'Reilly PF, Oskarsson H, Owen MJ, Painter JN, Pedersen CB, Pedersen MG, Peterson RE, Pettersson E, Peyrot WJ, Pistis G, Posthuma D, Purcell SM, Quiroz JA, Qvist P, Rice JP, Riley BP, Rivera M, Saeed Mirza S, Saxena R, Schoevers R, Schulte EC, Shen L, Shi J, Shyn SI, Sigurdsson E, Sinnamon GBC, Smit JH, Smith DJ, Stefansson H, Steinberg S, Stockmeier CA, Streit F, Strohmaier J, Tansey KE, Teismann H, Teumer A, Thompson W, Thomson PA, Thorgeirsson TE, Tian C, Traylor M, Treutlein J, Trubetskoy V, Uitterlinden AG, Umbricht D, Van der Auwera S, van Hemert AM, Viktorin A, Visscher PM, Wang Y, Webb BT, Weinsheimer SM, Wellmann J, Willemsen G, Witt SH, Wu Y, Xi HS, Yang J, Zhang F; eQTLGen; 23andMe, Arolt V, Baune BT, Berger K, Boomsma DI, Cichon S, Dannlowski U, de Geus ECJ, DePaulo JR, Domenici E, Domschke K, Esko T, Grabe HJ, Hamilton SP, Hayward C, Heath AC, Hinds DA, Kendler KS, Kloiber S, Lewis G, Li QS, Lucae S, Madden PFA, Magnusson PK, Martin NG, McIntosh AM, Metspalu A, Mors O, Mortensen PB, Müller-Myhsok B, Nordentoft M, Nöthen MM, O'Donovan MC, Paciga SA, Pedersen NL, Penninx BWJH, Perlis RH, Porteous DJ, Potash JB, Preisig M, Rietschel M, Schaefer C, Schulze TG, Smoller JW, Stefansson K, Tiemeier H, Uher R, Völzke H, Weissman MM, Werge T, Winslow AR, Lewis CM, Levinson DF, Breen G, Børglum AD, Sullivan PF; Major Depressive Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. (2018) Genome-wide association analyses identify 44 risk variants and refine the genetic architecture of major depression. Nat Genetics, May;50(5):668-681.
Milaneschi Y, Lamers F, Peyrot WJ, Baune BT, Breen G, Dehghan A, Forstner AJ, Grabe HJ, Homuth G, Kan C, Lewis C, Mullins N, Nauck M, Pistis G, Preisig M, Rivera M, Rietschel M, Streit F, Strohmaier J, Teumer A, Van der Auwera S, Wray NR, Boomsma DI, Penninx BWJH; CHARGE Inflammation Working Group and the Major Depressive Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (2017) The “weight” of depression: genetic overlap between major depression with atypical features and obesity immune-metabolic dysregulations. JAMA Psychiatry, Dec 1;74(12):1214-1225
Ciobanu LG, Sachdev PS, Trollor JN, Reppermund S, Thalamuthu A, Mather KA, Cohen-Woods S, Baune BT (2016) Differential gene expression in brain and peripheral tissues in depression across the life span: A review of replicated findings. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 71:281-293
Hou L….Baune BT…Schulze TG (2016) Genetic variants associated with response to lithium treatment in bipolar disorder: a genome-wide association study. The Lancet, 12;387(10023):1085-93
Clark S, Baune BT, Schubert KO, Lavoi S, Rice S, Schäfer M, Benninger F, Feucht M, Klier C, McGorry P, Amminger GP (2016) Prediction of transition from ultra-high risk to first episode psychosis using a probabilistic model combining history, clinical assessment and fatty acid biomarkers. Transl Psychiatry, 20;6(9):e897
Dannlowski U, Kugel H, Grotegerd D, Redlich R, Opel N, Dohm K, Zaremba D, Grögler A, Schwieren J, Suslow T, Ohrmann P, Bauer J, Krug A, Kircher T, Jansen A, Domschke K, Hohoff C, Zwitserlood P, Heinrichs M, Arolt V, Heindel W, Baune BT (2016) Disadvantage of social sensitivity: Interaction of oxytocin receptor genotype and child maltreatment on brain structure. Biol Psychiatry, 80(5):398-405
Dannlowski U … Baune BT (2015) Multimodal imaging of a tescalcin (TESC)-regulating polymorphism (rs7294919) - specific effects on hippocampal gray matter structure. Mol Psychiatry; 20(3):398-404
Baune BT, Dannlowski U, Domschke K, Janssen DGA, Jordan MA, Ohrmann P, Bauer J, Biros E, Arolt V, Kugel H, Baxter AG, Suslow T (2010) The interleukin 1 beta (IL1B) gene is associated with failure to achieve remission and impaired emotion processing in major depression. Biol Psychiatry 67(6):543-9
Beste C, Kolev V, Yordanova J, Domschke K, Falkenstein M, Baune BT, Konrad C (2010) The role of BDNF val66met polymorphism for the synchronization of error-specific neural networks. J Neuroscience 30(32):10727-33
McAfoose J & Baune BT (2009) Evidence for a cytokine model of cognitive function. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 33(3):355-66
Academic CV
| 1989-1996 | Medicine, University of Münster, Germany |
| 1999-2001 | Master of Public Health (MPH), University of Bielefeld, Germany |
| 2017-2019 | Master of Business Administration (MBA – Health), University of Wismar, Germany |
| 02/2002 | Specialist certification in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Germany |
| 08/2002 | Specialist certification in addiction medicine, Germany |
| 09/2002 | Specialist certification in Psychiatry, United Kingdom |
| 01/2006 | Specialist certification in Psychiatry, Australian Medical Council |
| 09/2009 | Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) (Eminence category) |
| 1996 | Doctorate in medicine (Dr.med.), Summa cum laude (University of Münster, Germany) |
| 2009 | Post-doctoral degree in Psychiatry: Venia Legendi (Habilitation) Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (2009) (University of Münster, Germany) |
Positions, Awards and Fellowships
Positions
Current
| since 03/19 |
Director, University of Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Münster (03/19 onwards |
| since 03/19 |
Honorary Professorial Fellow a) Department of Psychiatry, Melbourne Medical School The University of Melbourne |
Previous
| 08/18-02-19 | Cato Chair and Head of Department of Psychiatry, The University Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia |
| 01/11-07/18 | Chair and Head of Department of Psychiatry, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia |
| 01/08-12/10 | Professor and Head of the Department of Psychiatry, James Cook University, Queensland, Australia |
| 01/06-12/07 | Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychiatric Neuroscience; School of Medicine, James Cook University, Queensland, Australia |
| 01/04-12/05 | Senior Psychiatrist and Head of Mood Disorders; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Münster, Münster |
| 09/02-12/03 | Clinical Director and Senior Lecturer; Springfield University Hospital, University of London, London, UK |
| 1997-2002 | Completion of a structured training program in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the Universities of Jena and Witten-Herdecke and at the Centre for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Bielefeld Bethel, Bielefeld, Germany, Teaching Hospital of the University of Münster, Germany |
Editorial Boards
| since 2007 | Section editor of “Neuroscience and Psychiatry”: “Public Library of Science (PLoS ONE)” |
| since 2009 | Member of the Editorial Board “STROKE” |
| since 2011 | Member of the Editorial Board “Translational Psychiatry” (NPG) |
| since 2011 | ad-hoc field Editor International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology |
| since 2015 | Member of the Editorial Board “Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry” (ANZJP) |
| since 2016 | Member of the Editorial Board of “Pharmacopsychiatry” |
| since 2016 | Member of the Editorial Board of “International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research” |
| since 2018 | Associate Editor, Frontiers Psychiatry |
Publication record
1. Metrics (March 2019)
>480 career peer-review publications: 360 originals, 75 reviews; 47 books/chapters
Ratio of first/last to co-authored publications: 243:239
Cumulative impact factor: >2800
H-index: 60; i10-index: 155 (Number of publications with at least 10 citations)
Total: >13,000 citations
2. Quality of publications
Science (1x); N Eng J Medicine (1x); The Lancet (12x); Nature Genetics (3x); Mol Psychiatry (10x); Jama Psychiatry (3x); Biol Psychiatry (8x)
Honors and Awards
| 1997 | Best medical dissertation award (Dr.med.) (Germany) |
| 2003 | Innovation of health award (BKK, Germany) |
| 2006 | Premier of Queensland’s Export Award for Education, School of Medicine, James Cook University, Queensland, Australia |
| 2009 | International eminence membership with the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) |
| since 2014 | Professorial Fellow, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia |
| since 2019 | Professorial Fellow, The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Australia |
| since 2019 |
Professorial Fellow, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne, Australia
|