Michael O’Donovan

Oct 15, 2024 | nature.com | Emma Dempster |Eilis Hannon |Diego Quattrone |Edoardo Spinazzola |Zhikun Li |Charlotte Gayer-Anderson | +17 more

AbstractThe rising prevalence and legalisation of cannabis worldwide have underscored the need for a comprehensive understanding of its biological impact, particularly on mental health. Epigenetic mechanisms, specifically DNA methylation, have gained increasing recognition as vital factors in the interplay between risk factors and mental health.

Aug 26, 2024 | nature.com | Kai Yuan |Antonio F Pardiñas |Mingrui Yu |Tzu-Ting Chen |Max Lam |Mark Daly | +5 more

AbstractGenome-wide association studies (GWAS) of human complex traits or diseases often implicate genetic loci that span hundreds or thousands of genetic variants, many of which have similar statistical significance. While statistical fine-mapping in individuals of European ancestry has made important discoveries, cross-population fine-mapping has the potential to improve power and resolution by capitalizing on the genomic diversity across ancestries.

Nov 20, 2023 | nature.com | Amy Shakeshaft |Joanna Martin |Charlotte A. Dennison |Cathryn M. Lewis |Michael O’Donovan

AbstractAnxiety and depression (emotional disorders) are familial and heritable, especially when onset is early. However, other cross-generational studies suggest transmission of youth emotional problems is explained by mainly environmental risks. We set out to test the contribution of parental non-transmitted genetic liability, as indexed by psychiatric/neurodevelopmental common polygenic liability, to youth emotional problems using a UK population-based cohort: the Millennium Cohort Study.

Mar 13, 2023 | nature.com | Dongjing Liu |Brian K. Fennessy |Esther Cheng |Joseph D. Buxbaum |Enrico Domenici |Dheeraj Malhotra | +21 more

AbstractSchizophrenia (SCZ) is a chronic mental illness and among the most debilitating conditions encountered in medical practice. A recent landmark SCZ study of the protein-coding regions of the genome identified a causal role for ten genes and a concentration of rare variant signals in evolutionarily constrained genes1.

Jan 30, 2023 | businesslive.co.za | Michael O’Donovan

After a series of votes of no confidence the executive mayor of Johannesburg was again removed from the post on Thursday. On Friday a new executive mayor drawn from a tiny religious party, Al-Jama-ah, was appointed to lead SA’s biggest city with a population of about 6-million. Executive authority in the city now seems more fragile than ever before, since as long as no political party has a clear majority in council the post of executive mayor will be insecure.