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Published on March 30, 2022
Research led by scientists at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. shows that higher expression of the inflammatory biomarker interleukin (IL)-6 can influence brain structure in regions of the brain linked to conditions such as autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia. The results support earlier findings showing high levels of…
Published on March 25, 2021
The largest genomic study on mood and psychotic disorders to date reveals some substantial differences in the genetics of how such disorders develop and are expressed in men and women. A multinational team of scientists has scanned approximately 200,000 genomes to show that although there is substantial genetic overlap between…
Published on December 13, 2019
In the largest study of its kind, researchers at Massachusetts general Hospital have learned that eight psychiatric disorders have common genetic links. Studying GWAS data from healthy controls and individuals with at least one psychiatric disorder, they identified 109 gene variants associated with an increased risk for more than one…
Published on August 21, 2019
The results of a study headed by researchers at the University of Chicago suggest that there may be a significant link between exposure to environmental pollution and the prevalence of neuropsychiatric disorders. Analyses of large population data sets from the United States and Denmark linked poor air quality with increased…
Published on March 26, 2019
A collaboration launched today by Illumina and the Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre at the University of Copenhagen plans to generate and analyze one of the largest sets of ancient human and pathogen genome panels ever created—with the goal of underpinning new approaches to developing treatments for mental and neurological conditions.…
Published on December 14, 2018
A team that included scientists from the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine reports the development of a research model that relates variations in DNA and gene activity to the risk of brain disorders. The model, described in a paper (“Comprehensive functional genomic resource and integrative model for…
Published on June 22, 2018
Clinical categories for psychiatric disorders may need to be rethought, suggests a new study from the aptly named Brainstorm Consortium, a collaborative effort that accepted input from researchers representing 600 institutions worldwide. By pooling their data on hundreds of thousands of genomes, these researchers found genetic connections among distinct psychiatric…
Published on November 10, 2023
Sponsored by This IPM podcast unpacks some of the important work being done by Emma Johnson, PhD, assistant professor, department of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine. We discuss her mission to elucidate the genetic architecture of psychiatric disorders, particularly focusing on substance use and addictions. We hear…
Published on November 4, 2022
Researchers at University College London (UCL) have developed a new gene therapy approach for epilepsy and potentially other neurological and psychiatric diseases that works by reducing the excitability of overactive brain cells. The new closed-loop gene therapy approach enables the on-demand expression of a gene that tamps down the activity…
Published on September 8, 2022
New research from the University of Chicago (UChicago) that examine data from more than 400,000 people has provided new insights of the complex interaction between genetics and the environment in causing variability in common neuropsychiatric disorders. The investigators, whose findings were published in Cell Reports Medicine, are hopeful the information…
Published on February 9, 2021
Differences in gene expression could help explain why major mental disorders that have similar genetic roots produce such different symptoms in those affected, suggest results from the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda. The researchers found that although people with conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive…
Published on September 10, 2018
Techniques such as high-throughput genome sequencing have allowed scientists to identify hundreds of genetic variants that are linked with increased risk of different neurodevelopmental or neuropsychological disorders, such epilepsy, schizophrenia, intellectual disability, and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, two people with the same known risk variant won’t necessarily present with…
Published on August 15, 2018
Circadian rhythms are regular, daily variations in some of our biological functions and behaviors that are key to health and mental wellbeing. A research team at the University of Glasgow has now identified a potential genetic link between disrupted circadian rhythms and mood disorders, including major depressive disorder (MDD) and…
Published on July 10, 2018
Researchers from several New York institutions have uncovered a key molecular component of mental health disorders involving uncontrollable reactions to stimuli (i.e., bi-polar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD], and major depression). The paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is entitled “Molecular profiling of reticular…
Published on December 9, 2016
Researchers at University of California San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have identified six loci or regions of the human genome that are significantly linked to personality traits. Findings from this new study, which were published recently in Nature through an article entitled “Genome-wide analyses for personality traits identify six…