Major study published on genes contributing to risk for schizophrenia
An international study helmed by researchers in the VCU School of Pharmacy’s Center for Biomarker Research and Personalized Medicine was published April 9 in JAMA Psychiatry.
Center director Edwin van den Oord was principal investigator for the project, whose objective was to identify schizophrenia susceptibility genes. SOP faculty contributors included Karolina Aberg, Jozsef Buksczar, Amit Khachane and Joseph McClay. Collaborating institutions were based in Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, Sweden and the United States.
Researchers integrated results from a meta-analysis of 18 genome-wide association studies initially based on more than 11,000 cases and nearly 11,000 control subjects from six databases. The study was supported by National Institute of Mental Health grants. Click here to learn more about the study, or click here to go directly to the abstract.
Also in this edition of JAMA Psychiatry is an accompanying editorial, “Psychiatric Genetics: Are We There Yet?” In the editorial, John Hardy of London’s UCL Institute of Neurology concludes that “the report by Aberg et al. in this issue … goes some distance to answering these doubts” in relation to the identification of accepted genetic loci.
“This and another recent study,” Hardy writes, “convincingly show that there are genetic loci that contribute to the risk of schizophrenia and that these loci map, at least in part, to pathways that make sense. … after this study, we can be confident that we are on a road that will lead to dissection of some of the pathogenesis of this major disorder.”
To see a JAMA Psychiatry-produced video of van den Oord discussing the study, click here.
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