New Research Aims To Decode Genetic Roots Of Mental Illness

To get to the bottom of this, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) initiated a consortium called SSPsyGene in 2023.

Neurodevelopmental and psychiatric diseases (NPD), such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, and depression, have a negative impact on individuals, families, and society. Unfortunately, effective therapies are often lacking.

It's becoming increasingly obvious that genetic mutations in specific genes can raise the likelihood of getting NPD, and hundreds of those "risk genes" have been found to date, but their involvement in NPD remains unknown.

"Very little is known about the basic function of most of these genes, and what we do know often comes from work in cancer cell lines rather than brain cell types," said David Panchision, Chief of the Developmental and Genomic Neuroscience Research Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), who spearheaded the SSPsyGene programme aiming to tackle this challenge.