The iCNS Tissue Facility

2 February 2026

A central aim of iCNS is the creation of a molecular atlas of psychiatric symptoms that can be compared to an atlas of healthy donors and related to their clinical history and symptom severity. This data will become available open access to scientists worldwide.

Generation of the atlas will be a two-stage process. In Stage 1, 12 brain regions of 11 donors will be analyzed by bulk RNA sequencing, activity-based proteomics, and metabolomics. Sample selection is based on psychiatric phenotyping and signs and symptoms. Based on this output, 4 most affected brain regions will be analyzed in a larger cohort of about 100 donors in Stage 2.

The tissue selection and processing for the atlas is a major logistic challenge, which led to the decision to found a Tissue Facility at the NIN that receives the tissue from the Netherlands Brain Bank, processes it for the different applications, and shares it with the laboratories developing the atlas. Meanwhile, donors and tissue have been selected and procedures have been agreed through the intensive efforts of Chloé LeMaoult,  Rugilė Matulevičiūtė, Michiel Kooreman, and Payam Safavi from both WP1 and WP2. With this milestone achieved, tissue processing for Stage 1 will begin shortly and is expected to be completed by early summer 2026, laying the foundation for Stage 2.

The Tissue Facility will work closely with WP3, which is building the iCNS data infrastructure and identifying target molecules involved in psychiatric disorders, as well as with WP4 and WP5, which are developing chemical tools and using them to validate the identified targets, respectively.