Driven by his combined background and activities as clinical psychiatrist and neuroscientist, Bart Rutten has performed translational and multidisciplinary research projects on gene-environment interactions and neuroepigenetics in relation to mental health and illness. His research approach is characterized by combining human observational studies (longitudinal epidemiological cohorts as well as post-mortem brain studies) with molecular biological analyses and with in-vivo and ex-vivo experimental animal and cell culture studies. His research has revealed biological underpinnings of differential susceptibility to the impact of environmental stressors on mental health, in relation to psychosis, post-traumatic stress disorder and dementia, and his results have been published in the highest-ranking journals (e.g. Nature, Molecular Psychiatry, Nature Neuroscience, JAMA Psychiatry).