578. COLLECTING AND EVALUATING ANIMAL MODELS IN MENTAL HEALTH SCIENCE AND BUILDING AN ONLINE RESOURCE FOR RESEARCHERS: A WELLCOME INITIATIVE

Abstract Background Mental disorders remain a leading cause of disease burden, with no change in global reduction of burden since 1990. A major reason for this lack of change is that current treatments remain largely symptom based and often come with substantial side effects. There is a critical need to change the treatment paradigm for mental disorders by developing interventions that: target specific clinical components; and alter the disease course. A significant hurdle in mental health research is the lack of access to the human brain to enable direct investigation of putative pathologies. Alternatively, animal models have proved valuable tools to investigate how discrete genetic and environmental risk factors associated with mental illness disrupt brain and behaviour function and for testing novel treatments. However, when we consider the hundreds of genetic, environmental and multi-hit models generated in this field, a major question is how do we know if we are using the most appropriate model to test the efficacy of new treatments? Similarly, multiple assays have been developed to assess specific mental health domains. How can researchers ensure they are using the most appropriate assay for their research question? Aims & Objectives The Consortium for Preclinical Psychiatric Research (CPPR) seeks to provide answers to these questions through a new Wellcome initiative to evaluate and rank animal models in mental health science and develop an interactive web-based platform for researchers to identify the best model and/or assay for their specific research question. Method Expert working groups incorporating lived experience input for each domain of depression, anxiety and psychosis will guide model and assay evaluation and ranking. Results We will present our findings on novel methods for evaluating animal models, including a weighted scoring matrix and evaluation pipeline. Discussion & Conclusions This project is in its infancy and seeks further expert input from the CINP community to facilitate the development of a platform that showcases the value of preclinical models and extends their usage and understanding to a broader international research, industry and community audience to ultimately fast-track translation from preclinical to clinical testing, and provide new and improved treatments for people with a mental illness.