Todd Lencz

Oct 14, 2024 | nature.com | Todd Lencz |Brian J Mickey |James W Murrough |Sean M. Nestor |Thomas Nickl-Jockschat |Sina Nikayin | +6 more

AbstractGenome-wide association studies (GWASs) of major depressive disorder (MDD) have recently achieved extremely large sample sizes and yielded substantial numbers of genome-wide significant loci. Because of the approach to ascertainment and assessment in many of these studies, some of these loci appear to be associated with dysphoria rather than with MDD, potentially decreasing the clinical relevance of the findings.

Feb 25, 2024 | nature.com | Max Lam |Jimmy Liu |Daniel F Levey |Joel Gelernter |Murray B. Stein |Ellen A. Tsai | +3 more

AbstractNearly two hundred common-variant depression risk loci have been identified by genome-wide association studies (GWAS). However, the impact of rare coding variants on depression remains poorly understood. Here, we present whole-exome sequencing analyses of depression with seven different definitions based on survey, questionnaire, and electronic health records in 320,356 UK Biobank participants.

Nov 20, 2023 | nature.com | Daniel F Levey |Marco Galimberti |Joseph D. Deak |Dora Koller |Emma Johnson |Mahantesh Biradar | +12 more

AbstractAs recreational use of cannabis is being decriminalized in many places and medical use widely sanctioned, there are growing concerns about increases in cannabis use disorder (CanUD), which is associated with numerous medical comorbidities.

May 25, 2023 | nature.com | Chia-Yen Chen |Max Lam |Tarjinder Singh |Jimmy Liu |Aarno Palotie |Ellen A. Tsai | +4 more

AbstractCompelling evidence suggests that human cognitive function is strongly influenced by genetics. Here, we conduct a large-scale exome study to examine whether rare protein-coding variants impact cognitive function in the adult population (n = 485,930). We identify eight genes (ADGRB2, KDM5B, GIGYF1, ANKRD12, SLC8A1, RC3H2, CACNA1A and BCAS3) that are associated with adult cognitive function through rare coding variants with large effects.

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.