Genetic Basis of Mental Disorders Program

Overview

This program supports research on the unbiased and robust discovery of genetic variants that confer susceptibility to mental disorders (including anxiety disorders, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, depressive disorders, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, personality disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia or other psychotic spectra including prodrome, and Tourette syndrome).

Areas of Emphasis

• Large-scale, whole-genome and genome-, exome-, epigenome-, and other ‘ome’-wide studies.
• Elucidation of genetic architecture and heritability across the allele frequency spectrum.
• Fine mapping and identification of causal variants within risk loci.
• Co-heritability and shared genetic risk architecture using cross-trait analyses.
• Collection and genomic characterization of non-European ancestry cohorts.

This program supports the Ancestral Populations Network (APN) which was established in 2020. The overarching goals of the APN are to 1) accelerate genetic discovery for psychiatric disorders in cohorts of non-European ancestry, 2) advance global mental health discovery and equity, 3) facilitate measurement and data analytic harmonization efforts to enhance rigor and reproducibility, and 4) generate a resource for APN members and the scientific community.

Contact

Jonathan Pevsner, Ph.D. 
6001 Executive Blvd. 
301-728-5618, jonathan.pevsner@nih.gov