Youth-GEMs

About

Youth-GEMs

Youth mental health is a critical issue with profound and long-lasting impact on both individuals and society. In young people, it is believed to be shaped by a complex interplay of genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors that influence development.

Despite the urgency, understanding these influences has been difficult, with scientific progress historically slow and limited. However, recent advancements are finally paving the way for the breakthroughs needed to tackle the most pressing mental health challenges faced by young people today. Youth-GEMS is proud to be at the forefront of this vital mission!

Objectives    –     Our Approach     –     Our Work Packages

What drives us

Our mission

The YOUTH-GEMs project is dedicated to understanding how both genetic and environmental factors influence the mental health of young people aged 12-24. Our goal is to promote self-awareness, enable early detection, and provide timely interventions to help prevent or reduce mental distress.

Mental health issues often begin before the age of 24, a time when the brain is still rapidly developing and highly adaptable. However, the exact ways in which the brain changes during this critical period, which cells are affected, and what factors contribute to mental illness remain largely unknown.

We know that both our genetics—our “nature”—and the environment we grow up in—our “nurture”—play crucial roles in our mental well-being. Research shows that environmental factors like childhood trauma or drug use impact everyone, but the extent of their effect can vary depending on an individual’s genetic makeup. Some people are more susceptible to these influences due to their genes.

The Youth-GEMs project is exploring these “gene-environment interactions” during adolescence, aiming to uncover how these complex dynamics work. More importantly, we involve young people every step of our research, whether it’s in clinical studies, epigenetics, artificial intelligence, or e-health. By including the voices of those most affected, YOUTH-GEMs is working to find solutions that truly make a difference.

Our goals

Youth-GEMs objectives

Youth-GEMs is committed to significantly reduce mental suffering and illness among European youth within the next 5-10 years. To achieve this, we will:

1

Create the world’s first evidence-based knowledge base on the functional (epi)genomics of the developing post-natal human brain.
We are building a knowledge center to understand how the brain develops after birth and how this relates to mental health. By studying how different mental health symptoms develop, we aim to identify early warning signs (risk markers) and discover new treatment options (actionable biological targets) to improve care.

2

Building reliable predictive models.
We’re using Artificial Intelligence, and large, unique data sets to create reliable models that help us understand how genes and the environment interact to influence mental health. This will help us identify early signs of mental health challenges and take action sooner.

3

Developing Assessment Tools for the clinical setting.
We are establishing the first comprehensive, validated set of evidence-based tools for assessing mental health in young people aged 12-24. These tools will be informed by behavioral, environmental, biological, and psychological factors, and harmonised across European clinical settings.

4

Empower youth and clinicians.
We will create AI-driven tools that young people and clinicians can use to detect, predict, and monitor mental health issues early. These tools will help young people take charge of their mental health and get the support they need as soon as possible.

Our work

Our Work Packages

Work Package 1

1. Coordination & Project Management

WP1 is responsible for the effective coordination, organization, communication, and administration of the Youth-Gems project. The team ensures that financial management is handled efficiently, potential risks are assessed, and contingency plans are executed. 

WP1 also oversees legal and ethical compliance for the entire project and manages the innovation process, including data management, publication, and IP management. 

Work Package 2

2. Engagement, Ethics & Networking

We focus on “Engagement, Ethics & Networking” to help young people, public health officers, and healthcare workers become more aware of mental health concerns. Furthermore, we want them to be engaged and empowered to help shape the research in this area and work on solutions and approaches together. We also want to solve ethical, privacy, and security issues related to personal mental health information and the participants’ data which we will collect. 

To do this, we’re using a type of research called “participatory health research” where we work directly with young experts aged 16 to 24. We believe in sharing knowledge and involving young experts as much as possible, so we’re setting up a learning community where we can share ideas and stories. Principles of participation that we use, are: shared learning and maximizing the participation of young experts. That is why we will set up a learning community that fosters interactions and relationships based on mutual respect and trust in which ideas and stories are shared that support the broader aim of the project. In this way, different types of knowledge are combined and new knowledge is co-created. 

Within the participatory research we have a few activities planned. We get together at informal meetings where we discuss the project’s science, so-called science cafe sessions.

We also create a plan for our communication – inside and outside of the project. Further building our network, working on digital storytelling to share personal stories, and developing e-health solutions for self-help purposes represent other important aspects. In all activities young experts will be involved- from the planning to the roll-out. For some of the activities we also ask university students to participate, as well as carers, teachers and/or scientists, doctors or others with the necessary expertise. 

Partnering with Euro Youth Mental Health, young experts are involved in all steps of the project. Euro Youth Mental health is a non-profit organization run by young volunteers who aim to improve mental health support for young people across Europe. 

Work Package 3

3. Data Management

In the Youth-GEMs project, we want to learn about what affects mental health. We know that our environment and life events play a big role, but some mental health issues can also be passed down from our family and are thus genetic. We’re calling genetic factors that affect our mental health “predictors” because they can sometimes help us predict how our mental health will develop. 

To find “predictors” we need to collect a lot of information from as different people as possible. This information will therefore come from many different sources and might even be in different languages. So, we need to make sure that all the information follows the same rules, is collected and described the same way and is translated into the same language. This is called data harmonization. 

Due to the nature of genetic data being highly sensitive and personal it needs to be protected and we are careful about how it is used and who it is shared with. Not only does it inform us about the participant’s genetic make-up, but also their family’s. Therefore, specific protocols have been put in place describing how we handle and analyse this data (data processing). 

Finally, when we analyse large amounts of data (big data) we can search for patterns in the data and come up with a way (a “model”) to predict which factors influence our mental health most. Since we will need such large quantities of data to do this, we can’t possibly store all this data in one place. So, we leave the data where it is (locally) and send our analysis ‘model’ to the data, to run the analysis on it. We call this Federated learning, because when visiting the local data, the model will “learn” from this data, and then comes back to the data scientist with the results. 

Work Package 4

4. Functional Genomics of the Human Brain

Mental health is influenced by a combination of our genes and the environment we grow up in. Changes in how our genes work can affect how our brain functions and ultimately this effects our mental well-being. To help prevent and treat mental illness, it’s important to understand how our genes work and how they’re fine-tuned in specific cell types of the brain during development when we go through important stages of childhood and adolescence. This fine-tuning is controlled by certain parts of our genes, so-called gene regulatory elements. 

In this part of the project, we want to learn more about these gene regulatory elements and how they’re related to specific types of brain cells and different developmental stages. Because we can’t analyse this in depth in living people, we look at brain cells from  people who have passed away and also culture human brain cells in the lab. 

Some mental illnesses already start at a young age and we know about several genetic risk factors that are shared amongst different mental illnesses. But we don’t know why some people who have these risk factors fall ill and others don’t. So, we want to find out if fine-tuning the gene regulatory elements might play a role in this. If we understand which brain cells at which developmental stage are affected and how, we know what to look for and, in the future, can find options to prevent or treat the illness. Once we have this information, doctors could for instance predict who is at risk for different mental illnesses and together they could decide what to do to prevent the illness from happening. 

Work Package 5

5. Data Inference

We want to find out how genes, experiences, and their interaction impact mental health during young adulthood. By studying the specific psychological, developmental, biological, and genetic mechanisms we can hopefully learn why some people are more susceptible and others more resilient to mental illness. Data inference refers to the conclusion that’s drawn from evidence by looking at different types of data. 

To do this we will look closely at  data which has already been collected from big groups of young people from around the world including the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia. In these studies, scientist have collected a lot of information and have already analysed the data with statistical analysis. Now, we want to combine knowledge from work package 4, focusing on the gene fine-tuning, or gene regulatory elements, with machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence learning. 

Once we have identified which gene regulatory elements play a role in the development of mental illness (WP4) we will then test if these genes can also explain mental illness development in these large world-wide studies. 

Machine learning can help us with finding patterns we could not find otherwise. It helps us to look at large information at the same time, investigating all possible interactions. We can then study the dynamic, interactive, and time-dependent influence of genetic, but also “non-genetic” environmental factors, such as childhood adversities, stressful life events, peer-bullying, and drug use, and investigate how this all is connected to each other.  Hopefully we can then find out how it influences mental health outcomes. 

Work Package 6

6. Data Integration & Prediction

Machine learning, a sub-field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), is an advanced technology that allows computers to learn like humans do. For some areas, like reasoning and predictions machine learning often performs far better than people. 

Machine Learning is already used in healthcare where it can perform key clinical tasks, such as risk prediction, early and precise diagnosis, or personalized treatment planning. 

In the Youth-GEMs project, we want to create a machine-learning tool which will be built into a mobile app. With this app, you could then monitor your mental health and it would let you know early on before you may start experiencing problems. It does this by analysing your clinical data, data about your lifestyle, the environment you live in and your behaviour. 

Our hope is that this app could then give you the opportunity to start early intervention to prevent mental health issues. 

To make sure the app is not only accurate in its predictions but also that you trust it with all of your data, the project will bring together experts from different fields. AI scientists, people with digital technology expertise, clinical researchers, mental health experts, people experiencing mental illnesses, biomedical ethicists, social scientists and legal experts will work together to make sure the app meets the needs and expectations of everyone involved. 

We will also focus on making the app fair, non-discriminatory, transparent, and easy to understand. We want to create a tool that is safe and ethical for all adolescents to use, and that follows all relevant laws and regulations. 

Work Package 7

7. Clinical Innovation

Our goal is to make sure the research from the other work-packages can actually help young people and the professionals working with them in real life. We’ll run a clinical study with about 1,000 European and 1,000 Australian young people who are seeking help for the first time. In this study we will test if the work done by our project partners is useful for young people experiencing mental illness and their doctors. This study will run for 1 year and will help us identify factors influencing how mental illness evolves over time in young people and potential ways of helping them. Together with young experts we will define which factors are important to be measured and these will be included in the clinical study. 

Work Package 8

8. Ethics requirements

The objective of this work package is to make sure that the project meets all the ethical requirements set out for it. This work package defines the ethical requirements that the project must follow. 

Triin Kurrikoff

Research Fellow in Neuropsychopharmacology

University of Tartu, Faculty of Science and Technology, Institute of Chemistry

Triin Kurrikoff is a Research Fellow in Neuropsychopharmacology, Institute of Chemistry and lecturer in Biological Psychology in Institute of Psychology in the University of Tartu, Estonia. Her main research topics in the field of science are gene´environment interactions in impulsivity and ADHD and she has authored 13 research articles. Triin has a long-time experience in conducting the longitudinal study of Estonian Children Personality Behaviour and Health Study (ECPBHS) which had followed its participants from age 9 to 33 and has worked as a school psychologist for a short period of time. 

In Youth-GEMs, Triin is project coordinator of the WP7 Estonian Youth-GEMs team starting from the spring of 2024. She is responsible for coordinating the translation of the questionnaires, composing the application to the Ethics Committee and will continue to grow her role throughout the project.

Liina Nagirnaja 

Scientific Project Manager 

Center for Genomic Regulation 

Liina Nagirnaja, PhD, is a co-lead of Work Package 3. As a Scientific Project Manager at the European Genomic-phenomic Archive (EGA), she is coordinating various data discovery projects that facilitate biomedical research. She is keen on contributing to studies that explore the underlying causes of complex human disease, such as disorders of mental health. 

Prof. Dr. Ph.A.E.G. (Philippe) Delespaul

Clinical Psychologist 

Maastricht University 

Prof. Dr. Ph.A.E.G. (Philippe) Delespaul is a Belgian mathematical psychologist/psychometrist, clinical psychologist, and CBT supervisor. He is professor of Innovations in Mental Health Care at the School for Mental Health and NeuroScience (Maastricht University) and the Mondriaan Mental Health Centre. He advises regional, national, and international stakeholders in mental health service innovation. He integrates human rights with user and family involvement. With Jim van Os, he initiated the Dutch New Mental Health movement and develops local ecosystems for mental health (GEM). His focus is on ambulatory care for people with severe mental health needs. He co-developed the FACT model of integrated care. He is a pioneer and expert in the experience sampling methodology (ESM) to assess daily adaptational strategies and improve resilience. He developed the PsyMate™ App to facilitate ESM dissemination. He wrote three books, more than 50 chapters in edited manuals, and co-authored more than 200 PubMed-listed articles. 

Dr. Dorothee Horstkötter

Assistant professor in ethics and philosophy 

Maastricht University 

Dr. Dorothee Horstkötter  is an assistant professor in ethics and philosophy. She is head of the Department of Health Ethics and Society, part of the School of Mental Health and Neuroscience at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. Her research covers ethical and conceptual questions at the interface of neuroscience/mental health/genomics and (disordered) human behaviorShe has published on ethical question regarding mental health prevention across the life-span, covering the prevention of antisocial behavior in young children and their families  up to the ethics of dementia risk-reduction in midlife. She has lead research on the ethics of good care for parents who use drugs and on the concept of ‘neuro-parenting’. Her work also addresses ethical issues in neurostimulation (DBS, TMs, tDCS, etc.) for psychiatry. Her work invokes philosophical reasoning as well as empirical  ethics and qualitative research methods, ensuring the inclusion of the views and perspective of all stakeholders. Dorothee Horstkötter is an experienced teacher in applied bioethics, research ethics and philosophy of medicine and a longstanding ethics-member of the Maastricht Medical Research Ethical Committee. 

Sanne Berkers

PhD student 

Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry 

Sanne Berkers is a PhD student in the Binder Lab at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry. Her project, part of WP4 4, aims to identify genetic variants that influence stress-sensitive gene regulatory elements. Mental health determines much of our wellbeing. Yet, the processes underlying disease are poorly understood, which associates with suboptimal intervention. In her view, it is a field that requires and deserves efforts towards improved therapeutics. 

Prof. Dr. Jeroen Pasterkamp

Full Professor 

University Medical Center Utrecht 

My role in the consortium is to translate (epi)genetic findings towards human neurons using induced pluripotent stem cell technology and genome editing. Using these neuronal culture models, we can further understand disease mechanisms and perform therapy development. As a chair of the UMC Utrecht Brain Center I am responsible for psychiatric care and research. Our limited resources to treat psychiatric patients stimulated me to join YouthGems. 

Dr Gina Commin

Research Assistant 

University of Exeter 

Dr Gina Commin is a Research Assistant at the University of Exeter, working with Professor Jon Mill. She is  interested in the role of epigenetics in the developing human brain and its influence on mental health trajectories. Her role in WP4 is to helpto characterize patterns of genomic regulation from human cortex samples.  

Dr Jonathan P. Davies 

Postdoctoral Researcher 

University of Exeter 

Dr Jonathan Davies is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Exeter with an interest in human brain development and possible associations with neuropsychiatric disorders and mental health. He works in WP4 with Professor Jonathan Mill, to expand their work on the regulatory genomics of neurodevelopment throughout fetal, childhood and young adult human brains.  

Dr Alex Richards

Research Associate 

Cardiff University 

Dr Alex is a Research Associate from Cardiff University who is particularly interested in the role of common variation in causing mental health disorders. He is using Genomic SEM to look for genetic signal that is either shared between, or differentiates, psychiatric disorders of interest. These will be examined for enrichment with functional categories and cell type specific genes. 

Jonathan Mill

Professor of Epigenomics and Head of Department for Clinical & Biomedical Sciences 

University of Exeter 

Jonathan Mill, heads a group at the University of Exeter (UK) that studies the causes and consequences of genomic variation in the human brain and the role this plays in mental illness and other brain disorders. In particular they explore the way in which gene expression changes in specific brain cell types across development, and how disruptions to this might influence the risk of disease. Johnatan co-leads WP4 and his work in Youth-GEMS aims to characterize patterns of epigenomic and transcriptional regulation during key points in prenatal development and early childhood. In his view, the molecular marks studied in the project are particularly interesting as they potentially play a role at the interface between both genetic and non-genetic risk factors. 

Anna F. Wiersema

PhD candidate 

University Medical Center Utrecht 

In her work, Anna tries to determine the molecular functionality of the (epi)genetic variants that have been found earlier in our work package to identify actionable biological targets in the future. She and the rest of the team do this by using an advanced human in vitro model called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). This novel stem cell technology allows them to perform multiple functional assays to, for example, look at the morphology and activity of multiple different cell types.  

Mariël Kanne

Teacher/researcher 

HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht 

Mariël Kanne is an ethicist, specialized in ethical questions in the field of healthcare and social work. She works at the HU University of applied sciences Utrecht in the Netherlands as teacher/researcher. In WP-2, she tries to stimulate reflection on the moral values and dilemmas that are inherent in a project like YouthGEMs, where researchers and young people with mental health issues work together, with the aim to improve mental health and the mental health care system. 

Dr Lucy Riglin

Lecturer 

Cardiff University 

Dr Lucy Riglin is a lecturer based at the Wolfson Centre for Young People’s Mental Health and part of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry group within the Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics. She is part of our work-package 5. Her research investigates young people’s mental health using an interdisciplinary approach, integrating developmental psychopathology, psychiatry and genetic-epidemiology. 

Hanske Douwenga

Senior Lecturer 

HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht 

Hanske Douwenga (Remedial Educationalist) is a senior lecturer in the Master Pedagogy program and a researcher at the HU University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. Hanske is specialized in Ecological Pedagogy, Critical Pedagogy, Child Rights, and Participatory Research. Co-design is a significant aspect of her work as a lecturer and researcher. 

Ella Sheltawy

Youth GEMS Engagement Facilitator 

Euro Youth Mental Health 

With extensive experience as an advocate in mental health, Ella has seen how hard it can be for young people to access appropriate support and how their voices can be lost when they are facing stigma and inequalities within systems. She is passionate about joining the Youth GEMS project in order to be alongside young people, pushing forward new research that understands them. Aside from being passionate about mental health, Ella is also studying art part-time and is a lover of the great outdoors and discovering new places! 

Nick Morgan

Youth Engagement Lead/EYMH Director 

Euro Youth Mental Health 

Nick is the founder of Euro Youth Mental Health and an expert by lived experience with clinical depression and anxiety. Nick is deeply passionate about advocating for young people and ensuring they are empowered to use their voices and lived experiences to make positive changes in the world of mental health that impact them. 

Lonneke Fuhler

Remedial Educationalist

HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht 

Lonneke Fuhler (Remedial Educationalist) is a lecturer at the HU University of applied sciences Utrecht in the Netherlands. She teaches developmental psychology and conversation skills and is also a teacher in the field of trauma-sensitive work with youth. Her previous experience at Trauma Care Company (in the Netherlands), where she coached children, youth and adults with traumatizing experiences, is of added value to our Work Package 2. Lonneke stresses the fact that trauma-sensitive work has to be much more widely and strongly supported within (health) care for young people. 

Lisette van der Poel 

Developmental Psychologist 

HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht 

Lisette van der Poel is a developmental psychologist and Co-lead of WP-2. She works at the HU University of applied sciences Utrecht in the Netherlands and is focused on giving children and young people a voice in matters and research concerning their own lives and well-being. Along with Simona Karbouniaris and Jim van Os, she plays a role in this project by involving young people in the project. Lisette is specialized in ecological pedagogy, participatory research and community building. 

Simona Karbouniaris 

Social Scientist, WP2 leader 

HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht 

Simona Karbouniaris is a social scientist and the work package leader for WP-2 at the HU University of applied sciences Utrecht, the Netherlands. Along with Jim van Os and Lisette van der Poel, she plays a key role in this project. Simona has lived experience and is passionate about involving young people in the project and learning from their ideas about early prevention, adverse childhood events, self-awareness, resilience, and mental variation/neurodiversity. 

Dr. Sinan Guloksuz

Associate Professor of Psychiatry 

Maastricht University 

Dr. Sinan Guloksuz is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, Maastricht University, the Netherlands. He serves as the Vice Coordinator and Work-Package Leader (Data Inference) in the Youth-GEMs project. With a clinical psychiatry and epidemiology background, his main research interest is understanding the role of gene-environment interaction in youth mental health trajectories by analyzing large youth cohorts and clinical populations. 

Prof. Dr. Bart Rutten 

Youth-GEMs coordinator 

Maastricht University 

Bart Rutten is a distinguished psychiatrist and neuroscientist leading innovative research at Maastricht University Medical Centre. He coordinates multinational projects exploring gene-environment interactions and the interplay of neurobiology in mental health. Since 2022, Bart leads the trans-syndromal approach of the HORIZON Europe funded “Youth-GEMs” project, focusing on young individuals’ mental phenotypes and underlying gene-environment dynamics. 

Elisabeth Binder

Co-lead Work-Package 4

Max-Planck Institute of Psychiatry

Elisabeth Binder is the Director of the Department of Genes and Environment at the Max-Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Germany, and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine, USA. Her main research interests include identifying molecular moderators of the response to environmental factors, with a focus on early adverse environment and gene x environment interactions. She uses different omics approaches, including gene regulation, to evaluate large human cohorts and induced pluripotent stem-cell-derived models. The ultimate goal of her research is to develop novel prevention and treatment strategies for psychiatric diseases.

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Erika van Hell

Neuroscientist and project manager

Erika van Hell is a neuroscientist and project manager who has been involved in several larger international projects and consortia in the area of psychiatry and mental health. In Youth-GEMs, she coordinates the efforts to ensure that the valuable results of the project will be used and implemented by the people who would benefit the most (e.g. people with mental health problems, scientists, policy makers). In addition, she plays a part in WP7, working together with PIs Thérèse van Amelsvoort (Maastricht University) and Christel Middeldorp (Amsterdam UMC) to coordinate the clinical study in the Netherlands. 

Noussair Lazrak

Co-lead WP6 

University of Barcelona 

As an Artificial Intelligence researcher, Noussair is working on developing AI models for youth mental health trajectories to analyze and process comprehensive data using machine learning techniques. He collaborates with mental health professionals to ensure the models are relevant and accurate to real-world mental health care while considering ethical and privacy issues. His goal is to develop effective AI models that identify patterns and risk factors for mental health disorders, provide personalized interventions and treatments, and intervene early in the development of mental health disorders. 

Winni Schalkwijk, MSc

PhD student

UMC Utrecht

In her research, Winni explores how epigenetic biomarkers can reveal key determinants of mental health trajectories in youth. Epigenetic mechanisms are involved in long-term developmental programming and are responsive  to environmental challenges. By studying epigenetic biomarkers, Winni aims to enhance our understanding of immune-related resilience mechanisms, ultimately contributing to improved prevention and treatment of mental health problems.

Nele Volbragt 

Research coordinator 

Maastricht University 

Nele Volbragt is a research coordinator at Maastricht University since 2016 with a special interest in youth mental health and genetic syndroms. She has mainly worked on (international) projects focused on mental health issues like psychosis, anxiety and others.In Youth-GEMs she is involved in the coordination and practical implementation of the research project in WP7.  

Aldar Cabrelles Muñoz

Data Coordinator

European Genome-Phenome Archive

Aldar Cabrelles is part of Work Package 3, working as a Data Coordinator and Curator at the European Genome-Phenome Archive (EGA). In this position, he provides assistance in the creation of Data Management Plans with guidance towards good practices, and aids in the harmonization and interoperability of data in different fields. He puts a special effort in making sure everything can be understood by as many people as possible.

Jim van Os

Professor of Psychiatry, Chair of the Brain Division

UMC Utrecht

Jim van Os, born in Utrecht in 1960, is a Professor of Psychiatry and also serves as the Chair of the Brain Division at UMC Utrecht. He is a member of both the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities. His work focuses on critically evaluating the prevailing model of mental suffering, which is often simplistically portrayed as being ‘sick in the head.’ He argues that this approach has had little positive impact on the quality of mental health care in the Western world and may even have contributed to the notable increase in mental disorders among young people. 

Van Os views academic psychiatry and psychology as ‘pre-sciences’ that urgently need more layered and complex models of mental suffering, taking into account its social-collectivist causes and the necessity for broad salutogenesis and resilience-building (public mental health). He raises the crucial question of how mental health care should be organized in a society where the annual prevalence of mental suffering is 25%, a question that has so far remained largely unaddressed in research. 

Jim van Os advocates for a new approach to mental health care, one that is rooted in epistemic pluralism: the idea that mental suffering can be viewed through multiple lenses (social, medical, spiritual, lifestyle, existential, physical, post-traumatic) and that individuals should have the ability to choose how and from which framework they wish to work on change. 

Therese van Amelsvoort

Academic Psychiatrist

Maastricht University

Therese van Amelsvoort is an academic psychiatrist and Professor in Transitional Psychiatry. She trained at Maudsley & Bethlem NHS/IoP/KCL (London) and currently leads the Mental Health academic research group of Maastricht University. She has obtained funding for, and supervised over 30 PhD projects and has been running the National Adult 22q11DS Centre of Expertise for 20 years. In addition, she is co-founder of @ease (www.ease.nl), the Dutch version of the successful Australian Headspace initiative, youth mental health walk-in centers serving prevention and early detection. Finally she runs (and initiated) a specialised youth mental health care service bridging the gap between child & adolescence and adult services. She has more than 30 years clinical experience and is part of several international collaborative research networks including YOUTH-GEMs, IBBC, Genes2MH, ENIGMA, PSYSCAN, MINDDS.

Renzo Abregú-Crespo

Psychologist researcher 

Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón 

Renzo Abregú-Crespo is a research psychologist at Institute of Psychiatry and Mental Health (Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón). He is currently completing his doctoral studies in research on the prevention of bullying in young people with neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. Renzo has extensive training in clinical and neuropsychological assessment and intervention in psychological trauma. In recent years, he has been exclusively dedicated to delving deeper into the field of research and expanding his knowledge of mental health in young people, which he considers essential for providing high-quality care services tailored to this population.   

Renzo will be responsible for conducting clinical and neuropsychological assessments of YouthGEMS participants. Furthermore, he will contribute to supporting project coordination to ensure that the planned objectives are achieved.

Maud Daemen

Research coordinator 

Maastricht University 

Dr. Maud Daemen is a research coordinator at Maastricht University. Her PhD project focussed on the role of self-esteem in pathways to psychopathology. She is particullary interested in youth mental health. Within Youth-GEMs she is involved in the coordination of practical implementation of the research project at Maastricht University. 

Anouk Boonstra

PhD candidate  

Maastricht University 

Anouk Boonstra is a Dutch researcher who studied neuroscience and health & medical psychology, worked as a psychologist, and is now a Ph.D. candidate in youth mental health. Specifically, she studies innovative ways to improve the provision and accessibility of youth mental health support. This includes the @ease youth mental health walk-in centres (www.ease.nl), solutions for the youth to adult service transition, and a transdiagnostic ecological momentary self-esteem intervention for youth exposed to childhood adversity. Within Youth-GEMs, Anouk is active in Work-Package 7: Clinical Innovation​, including the systematic review and (initially providing input for planning of) the clinical studies. 

Marija Nikolic

MD & PhD candidate  

Clinic for Neurology and Psychiatry for Children and Youth 
Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases Dedinje

Marija Nikolic is a research assistant for the Youth-GEMs project at the Clinic for Neurology and Psychiatry for Children and Youth in Belgrade. As an MD and PhD candidate, Marija understands the importance of addressing the rising mental health problems in youth, as they continue to struggle with their emotional, psychological, and social well-being. She believes that the Youth-GEMs project has the potential to make a significant contribution to the field of youth mental health by providing practical guidelines and connecting different areas of knowledge.

Aleksa Milevic

MA Psychologist and RE&CBT Psychotherapist under supervision 

Clinic for neurology and psychiatry for children and youth Belgrade 

Research assistent for the project at the Clinic for neurology and psychiatry for children and youth Belgrade. Mental health was always in focus of Aleksa’s interests because it is still deep and unexplored topic. From his perspective, Youth-GEMs is great opportunity to connect different knowledges and get a practical guidelines about mental health. 

Jasna Jancic

Neuropsychiatrist, Full Professor of neurology  

Medical faculty University of Belgrade  

Senior resercher for the project at the Clinic for neurology and psychiatry for children and youth Belgrade. In her view, the scientific significance of this international project is a dynamic view of developmental disorders that unifies congenital and acquired patterns and provides insight into individual and general characteristics of neuropsychiatric functioning. 

Dejan Stevanovic

Child psychiatrist & Senior Research Fellow 

Clinic for Neurology and Psychiatry for Children and Youth  

Site principal investigator for the project. In Dejan’s view the benefit of international scientific collaboration for youth mental health is in carving research ideas and actions globally but taking into account what’s common and what’s different in our needs locally.

Dr. Sophie Leijdesdorff 

Assistant Professor 

Maastricht University 

Dr. Sophie Leijdesdorff is a psychologist and assistant professor. Her aim is to take away al barriers to care for young people with mental health problems. Her research focuses on innovative youth mental health interventions, assessing their accessibility, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. She sees great value in involving young people, often with lived experience of mental health problems, in her research as co-researchers, and developed herself as qualitative researcher to give young people a voice trough eg. interviews.  

Maria Bulgheroni

R&D Director 

Ab.Acus. 

Maria coordinates the diverse design and development activities across the different WPs in which Ab.Acus is involved. In her view, taking care of mental health since a young age is a key step in the creation of a more inclusive society. 

Jaanus Harro, MD, PhD

Professor and Chair of Neuropsychopharmacology 

University of Tartu 

Jaanus Harro is Professor and Chair of Neuropsychopharmacology at the University of Tartu. The team led by him contributes to WP7 of Youth-GEMS. Dr Harro is conducting research on mental health across a broad spectrum, from developing innovative animal models and novel treatments to longitudinally following representative human birth cohort samples, with focus on general vulnerability and resilience. 

Tomislav Franić, MD, PhD

Associate Professor in Psychiatry 

School of Medicine, University of Split

Tomislav, a subspecialist in child and adolescent psychiatry, often reflects, “I didn’t choose psychiatry; psychiatry chose me.” His passion for studying mental health has driven his career, seeking innovative ways to support and help young people. As the principal investigator in the team, he is dedicated to advancing the field and enjoys every aspect of his work. Outside of his professional life, Tomislav is married, a proud father of a medical student, and the owner of Grgo, a North African gray parrot.

Dina Levačić

Research assistant, PhD student 

The field of mental health has always been an interest of Dina, through education, professional life and sport. She manages to combine it all in my PhD, “Health and psychological aspects of channel swimmers”. She is a lifelong swimmer, the youngest female to do Oceans7, crime shows addict and owner of 10kg furry cutie named Ogi. 

Mia Plenković

Research assistant and PhD student

School of Medicine, University of Split

As a Master of Nursing and current PhD student, Mia is deeply invested in enhancing youth mental health through clinical practice and research. Her focus is on understanding the challenges faced by young people with mental health issues and the experiences of their families. In her role as a research assistant, she performs assessments, provides continuous support to participants in Croatia, and guides them throughout the study. Passionate about bridging the gap between research and real-world impact, Mia is dedicated to improving youth’s emotional, psychological, and social well-being through collaborative and evidence-based approaches.

Marta Ferrer-Quintero

Helps coordinate WP7

Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón

Marta Ferrer-Quintero, PhD is in charge of helping coordinate WP7 at Institute of Psychiatry and Mental Health (Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón)  and making sure everything goes according to plan. Marta is devoted to improving mental health in youth and believes research is the perfect tool to promote fair and universal mental healthcare to all. When not at work, she can be found reading sci-fi, climbing, doing yoga or at the park with her dog Toffee. 

Prof Ian Kelleher

Chair of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 

University of Edinburgh (UK), University College Dublin (Ireland), and University of Oulu (Finland)

Prof. Ian Kelleher leads WP7 together with Dr Covadonga Martínez Díaz-Caneja. 

Prof Ian Keller is originally from Ireland, lives in Scotland and is running the Youth GEMS study in Finland. In his view, it’s interesting to work between 3 different countries as it provides lots of opportunities to learn from inter-country similarities and differences.  

Covadonga Martínez Díaz-Caneja

WP7 lead 

Fundación para la Investigación Biomédica del Hospital Gregorio Marañón 

Covadonga is fascinated by how the brain develops and evolves in a constant dialogue with the environment and want to understand how to improve mental health and wellbeing in young people. 

Margherita La Gamba

Biomedical researcher 

Ab.Acus 

In Youth-GEMs Margherita is responsible for the collection through co-design of user requirements and feedbacks for the development of the mobile app and digital platform. Youth mental health is something she really cares about after experiencing the hard reality of loved ones struggling. 

Laura Giani

R&D software developer 

Ab.Acus 

In Youth-GEMs Laura works on the design and development of the Youth-GEMs digital solution that will be used in the WP7 clinical trial. She would like to help the new generations to be more aware of their mental health and needs, and believes digital tools are the proper way to do it.

Esmeralda Ruiz Pujadas

Co-lead WP6

Universidad de Barcelona  

Mental disorders are the third most common cause of disease burden, starting at a young age. Mental illnesses are often recurrent, reducing the quality of life for young people. This is the main reason why Esmeralda has decided to join this project. Esmeralda hopes to ‘do her bit’ to help improve mental health and wishes that mental health will gain more attention thanks to the Youth-Gems project, one of the major initiatives for this purpose. To achieve this, she will be developing models among help-seeking young people to predict mental health outcomes, as well as studying different trajectories to gain new insights into youth mental health. She also aims for the proposed models to be trustworthy, ensuring they are explainable and fair across all subgroups of the population.