Webcast: Whole Genome Association Study of Schizophrenia

Presenter: Todd Lencz, PhD., Zucker Hillside Hospital, Feinstein Institute for Medical Research

Date: May 9, 2007

Duration: 60 Minutes

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Abstract

Schizophrenia is a complex disease marked by high heritability (70-80%), yet few disease genes have been clearly identified and linkage studies have failed to converge.

Whole genome association (WGA) is a promising, hypothesis-free approach to discovering novel genetic susceptibility loci for diseases such as schizophrenia. However, WGA entails numerous methodological challenges, including:

• Management and manipulation of very large datasets
• Multiple quality control procedures
• Statistical analysis correcting for multiple comparisons.

Dr. Lencz and his team used Golden Helix' software to overcome these difficult challenges on their quest to discover a novel gene that appears to increase the risk of developing schizophrenia.

In a sample of 178 patients with schizophrenia and 144 controls, Dr. Lencz and his team of psychiatric researchers from FIMR utilized HelixTree software to analyze WGA data derived from Affymetrix 500K microarrays. They identified a novel susceptibility locus in the pseudoautosomal region of the X/Y chromosomes. The results were published last month in the high-impact journal, Molecular Psychiatry.

In this webinar Dr. Lencz will walk through the data management and analytic steps conducted in HelixTree that helped make this discovery possible.

About the Presenter

Dr. Todd Lencz is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Assistant Investigator in the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research at NS-LIJHS, and Senior Psychologist at the Zucker Hillside Hospital (ZHH). He serves as Associate Director for the Recognition and Prevention (RAP) Program, as well as the Unit of Molecular Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry Research at ZHH. Dr. Lencz received his B.A. in Psychology (Magna cum Laude with Distinction in the Major) from Yale University and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Southern California, where he won the Distinguished Dissertation Award.

Dr. Lencz is the author or co-author of nearly 50 peer-reviewed scientific publications, focusing on three related research projects in the biology of schizophrenia and other serious mental illness:

1. refining the clinical criteria (phenotype) that define the boundaries of mental illness;
2. identifying endophenotypic markers of mental illness in the brain, using techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and neurocognitive testing;
3. using molecular genetics to characterize risk genotypes.

Dr. Lencz is also the recipient of a Career Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health, a Young Investigator Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders, and is the first awardee of the KeySpan Industries Medical Research Fellowship. Dr. Lencz is also co-editor of the book Schizotypal Personality, published by Cambridge University Press.