A new genome-wide association study (GWAS) estimates the number of different places in the human genome that are involved in schizophrenia, say researchers in the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In particular, the study identifies 22 locations, including 13 that are newly discovered, that are believed to play a role in causing schizophrenia.
A new genome-wide association study (GWAS) estimates the number of different places in the human genome that are involved in schizophrenia, say researchers in the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In particular, the study identifies 22 locations, including 13 that are newly discovered, that are believed to play a role in causing schizophrenia.
“If finding the causes of schizophrenia is like solving a jigsaw puzzle, then these new results give us the corners and some of the pieces on the edges.” said study lead author Dr. Patrick F. Sullivan. “We’ve debated this for a century, and we are now zeroing in on answers.”
“This study gives us the clearest picture to date of two different pathways that might be going wrong in people with schizophrenia,” Sullivan said. “Now we need to concentrate our research very urgently on these two pathways in our quest to understand what causes this disabling mental illness.”
Sullivan is a professor in the departments of Genetics and Psychiatry and director of the Center for Psychiatric Genomics at the UNC School of Medicine. The new study was published online Aug. 25 by the journal Nature Genetics.
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