Glossary

Plain-language definitions for the technical terms used across the Open Psychiatry Project. Missing something? Tell us and we’ll add it.

B

Biobank

A large collection of biological samples (like blood or saliva) and the health information that goes with them, gathered from many volunteers so researchers can study how genes and biology relate to disease over time.

Biomarker

A measurable signal in the body — a protein, a molecule, a genetic variant — that tells you something about a condition: who is likely to develop it, how it will progress, or which treatment will work.

See also: Omics

Bitfount

The federated analysis software OPP uses to run research queries inside secure data environments. It lets a researcher's question travel to the data instead of the data travelling to the researcher.

See also: Federated analysis

C

Co-production

Designing research and tools together with the people they're meant to serve, rather than for them. On OPP this means people with lived experience of mental illness help shape what gets built and how, from the start.

D

Data Access Committee

The independent group that reviews and approves requests to run analyses through FedOMICS. OPP has two layers of this oversight: a project-wide committee plus each data custodian's own committee.

Data custodian

The organisation legally responsible for a dataset — for example Generation Scotland, or an NHS trust holding patient records. Nothing happens to that data without the custodian's agreement.

Data federation

An approach to combining insight from datasets held in different places without moving or pooling the underlying data itself. Analysis runs locally at each site; only summary results travel.

See also: Federated analysis

Drug repurposing

Finding a new use for a medicine that's already approved for a different condition — faster and cheaper than developing a drug from scratch, because its safety is already established.

Drug target

A specific gene, protein, or biological pathway that a medicine could act on to treat a disease. Identifying strong drug targets is a key step before any new treatment can be developed.

F

FedOMICS

OPP's privacy-preserving data federation network, initially linking the Generation Scotland cohort and the Early Intervention Mission/ImmunoMind psychosis cohort using Bitfount's technology.

See also: Federated analysis

Federated analysis

Running a research question locally, inside each secure environment where data already lives, instead of moving individual-level data anywhere. Only anonymised summary results are returned to the researcher.

Functional genomics

The study of how genes and biological pathways influence disease, going beyond simply reading a gene sequence to understand what that gene actually does in the body.

See also: Omics

G

Generation Scotland

A large Scottish family-based health research cohort, and one of the first datasets connected into FedOMICS.

M

Metabolomics

The large-scale study of metabolites — the small molecules produced when the body breaks down food, drugs, and its own tissues. Changes in these molecules can signal how a condition is developing.

See also: Omics

O

Omics

An umbrella term for technologies that study a biological system at scale — genomics (genes), proteomics (proteins), and metabolomics (metabolites) among them. OPP integrates omics data to improve understanding of mental health conditions.

Open Targets Platform

An internationally used, open-source platform for drug target discovery, built by EMBL-EBI and industry partners. OPP extends it with mental-health-relevant molecular data.

P

People with Lived Experience (PWLE)

People who have personally experienced a mental health condition, or who care for someone who has. PWLE co-design OPP's resource and research questions alongside researchers and Health professionals.

Proteomics

The large-scale study of proteins — which ones are present, how much of each, and how they change — since proteins carry out most of the work inside cells.

See also: Omics

R

Real-world data

Health data generated during everyday care — GP records, hospital admissions, prescriptions — rather than collected in a controlled clinical trial.

T

Trusted Research Environment (TRE)

A secure computing space where approved researchers can work with sensitive health data. Nothing enters or leaves without checks. UK health data is spread across dozens of separate TREs, which is why they are hard to study together.

See also: Federated analysis

Missing a term, or think a definition could be clearer? We write these with people with lived experience — suggest a term.