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The mission of the Ziller lab is to develop and apply novel strategies to dissect the genetic and epigenetic basis of complex diseases, with particular focus on psychiatric disorders. Our research is focused on the question of how many genetic and environmental risk factors act in concert to create a permissive molecular environment that fosters the emergence of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and lead to treatment resistance. To address this problem, we employ a highly interdisciplinary, integrative biology approach that utilizes human pluripotent stem cell-based model systems, high throughput functional genomic screening, and big data-based machine learning, bridging the scales from genetics to patient level traits. The Ziller lab is part of the Department for Mental Health of the Medical Faculty. The overall goal of the Department is to dissect the molecular mechanisms underlying psychiatric diseases and treatment resistance, rapidly utilizing these insights to develop new patient-tailored therapeutic approaches in a knowledge-driven fashion.