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Genes produce proteins
whose interactions are clustered in hubs.
By being able to turn off some hubs, scientists
can isolate genes that act to increase
susceptibility to psychiatric illnesses. |
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Picture this: your genes are
like a complex air traffic control system, with
successful function dependent upon the navigation
of a complicated network of routes and hubs. The system
can tolerate mistakes at smaller airports with little
effect upon the traffic flow. However, if a hub like
Chicago, New York, or Denver is attacked, the entire
system shuts down.
In fact, air traffic is similar
to biological networks. When everything works, you
are healthy. So imagine that your doctor could thwart
illnesses to which you are genetically predisposed
by controlling hubs that interact throughout your
own complex and interactive genetic architecture.
Scientists at the University of Chicago are writing
the rulebook on how to do just that.
With the newly launched National
Center for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Molecular
Neuroscience, clinical researchers in psychiatry at
Chicago are now able to work more closely across the
disciplines of genetics, evolutionary biology, bioinformatics,
and statistics to identify genes, and ultimately develop
treatments, for debilitating psychiatric diseases
such as bipolar disorder (manic depression), schizophrenia,
major depression, and autism.
Psychiatric illnesses are the cause of disability
for over 20 million adults in the US alone. The World
Health Organization (WHO) has reported that neuropsychiatric
diseases are among the leading causes of disability
worldwide. A staggering figure, the impact is even
more disturbing when one considers the number of cases
that go undiagnosed, untreated, and unreported because
of social stigma and the lack of public and physician
awareness of the symptoms. These diseases are complicated,
and caused not by a certain gene, but rather by disruption
of a network of genes in a complex architecture that
scientists have only just begun to understand.
For decades, scientists at the
University of Chicago have led the world in the study
of genetics and, in fact, are at the forefront of
unraveling the mysteries of genetics. In recent years,
they have made multiple breakthrough discoveries in
gene associations for complex inheritance disorders.
These include newly discovered genes involved in bipolar
disorder, diabetes, and inflammatory bowel disease,
and represent a significant number of all susceptibility
genes that scientists have discovered to date.
These discoveries have positioned
the University of Chicago to assume a leading role
in biomedical research, drawing from the successful
mapping of the human genome. With a single campus
of undergraduate, graduate, and medical research and
training, and the University’s unique partnership
with the Argonne National Laboratories, the culture
at Chicago is nearly unique among academic institutes
nationwide. This environment is optimally suited to
meet the exceptional challenges afforded by the post-genomic
era.
At the helm of the new Center are
world-renowned University of Chicago professors Elliot
Gershon and T. Conrad Gilliam. Gershon’s lab
is responsible for discovering that G72—a gene
on the long arm of chromosome 13—is positively
associated with bipolar illness. Gershon, a professor
of psychiatry, is not only an expert clinician with
keen insights into managing the complexities of psychiatric
diseases and the suffering of patients, he is also
an expert in genetics. The establishment of the Center
presents an exceptional opportunity for collaboration
with Gilliam, whose complicated, computational methodologies
will integrate with Gershon’s studies using
animal models to understand genes involved in psychiatric
disorders.
Gilliam was recently appointed
professor and chair of the Department of Human Genetics
and is an expert in a broad range of psychiatric disorders,
including autism — a disease that is being diagnosed
more and more frequently in children today. Gilliam’s
group has mapped five neuropsychiatric disease genes,
and by using state-of-the-art bioinformatics technologies,
he and his colleagues can begin to predict and explore
complex groups of genes, or networks, that are involved
in psychiatric illnesses.
Also joining Gershon and Gilliam
at the Center is Nancy Cox, a statistical geneticist
who is a professor in both the Departments of Human
Genetics and Medicine. Cox works on the computations
that help uncover the genetic variations in our bodies
that influence our susceptibility to psychiatric and
other complex disorders. For example, by analyzing
and making sense of vast amounts of data, Cox discovered
a genetic predisposition by some people to Type 2
Diabetes.
Working together, Drs. Gershon,
Gilliam, and Cox will manage, analyze, integrate,
and store volumes of clinical, biological, genetic,
and genomic data that will all be used to predict
disease liability and maximize drug efficacy based
upon an individual’s genomic signature.
The University of Chicago is seeking
private philanthropy to support initiatives
in psychiatry and bioinformatics to advance the Center’s
work to develop targeted therapies to combat these
devastating illnesses. These gifts will help to:
- Expand current research focused on bipolar disorder
to include schizophrenia and major depression, allowing
scientists to tackle the genetics of a wide spectrum
of psychiatric illnesses.
- Recruit scientists trained in genomics, bioinformatics,
and psychiatry who will advance understanding of
the complex genetics of psychiatric illnesses.
- Provide the computer infrastructure to develop
the bioinformatics methods that will allow scientists
to predict and understand how networks of interacting
genes are disrupted to increase the risk of diseases.
- Endow two professorships for senior faculty engaged
in genetics and in clinical investigation of psychiatric
illnesses, providing a perpetual source of funding
to advance understanding and treatment of these
complex inherited disorders.
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