The Genetic Basis of Neuropsychiatric and Neurodegenerative Disorders

Psychiatric disorders are common in the UK and throughout the world. They not only result in considerable personal suffering but also have major economic and social impact. We know that genes play an important role in influencing the risk that an individual may develop such disorders from studies of families, twins, and people who have been adopted. However at present, we do not know exactly what the genes are out of the many tens of thousands of genes each person carries. Broadly speaking then, a central aim of our Co-operative Group is to use modern genetic methods to locate and identify the specific genes involved in contributing to the development of major psychiatric disorders. By identifying the actual genes, we will then be able to determine the function of the proteins they encode, and, consequently, the nature of the dysfunction that leads to disease. This should lead to a better understanding of the causes, genetic and environmental, of serious mental disorders, and a more secure foundation for better diagnosis and ultimately to the development of more effective treatments. Other aims of our group to begin to use animal models to help us to understand how genetic factors lead to disease and to develop novel methods for treating brain diseases with an initial focus on Huntington?s disease.

The PIs and field workers in all projects regularly give presentations to healthcare workers, NHS managers, service planners and policy makers, teachers, carers and users as part of our dialogue with the public. In addition we produce Newsletters aimed at users/carers, and a number of television and newspaper pieces involving our group aimed at the public have been broadcast and published. The PIs have also given public lectures on various aspects of Psychiatric Genetics. Examples of all these activities are given in our Five Year Progress Report.

In addition, our Co-op will play a major role in the Wales Gene Park, one of the partners in which is Techniquest, Cardiff?s public centre for science discovery. Public and professional education in relation to genetics, including psychiatric genetics, is a major part of the Gene Park?s mission and funding for a non-clinical lecturer in the Public Understanding of Genetics has been obtained.

The Co-operative Group is built around a series of well established collaborations within the Departments of Psychological Medicine and Medical Genetics, UWCM, together with more recently established links with the Department of Medicine, UWCM and the School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, CU. It contains a wide range of scientific expertise relevant to genetic aspects of psychiatric disorders including phenotype definition, epidemiology, quantitative/statistical genetics, molecular genetics, cell biology, proteomics and transcriptomics, biochemistry, neural transplantation, stem cell biology and the analysis of animal models of neuropsychiatric disorder. These different expertises are brought together in a range of research programmes concentrating on the following specific phenotypes; schizophrenia, Huntington s disease, bipolar affective disorder, Alzheimer s disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression and dyslexia. Members of the co-op are also undertaking several basic genomics projects the applicability of which will not be restricted to neuropsychiatric disorders. Underpinning our Co-operative is a recognition of the need to assemble a group of researchers who are capable not only of identifying genes for mental illness but also of studying the functional consequences of genetic susceptibility, determining how disease genes interact with environmental risk factors and translating genetic understanding into novel approaches to treatment.