22/07/2014

Trinity Scientists Collaborate On New Schizophrenia Study

Scientists at Trinity College Dublin have been part of a collaborative study into the biological mechanisms that underlie schizophrenia.

Researchers from the School of Medicine in Trinity College Dublin have helped to identify over 100 locations in the human genome associated with the risk of developing the condition.

The findings could lead to new approaches to treating the disorder.

Schizophrenia affects approximately 1 out of every 100 people in Ireland and worldwide. Symptoms can include hallucinations, delusions and impaired social function.

"In genomics, collaboration is key. This study is transformative, in showing that we can systematically identify many genetic risk factors for schizophrenia using approaches that have been successful for other diseases," said Aiden Corvin, Professor of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin and Head of the Psychosis Research Group at Trinity who was one of the lead authors of the study.

"Now that we have more pieces of the puzzle, we are starting to group genes into identifiable pathways so that we can explore schizophrenia at a biological level."

Michael O’Donovan, deputy director of the MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics at Cardiff University School of Medicine and the paper’s senior author said: "The wealth of new findings have the potential to kick-start the development of new treatments in schizophrenia, a process which has stalled for the last 60 years."

(IT/CD)

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