From gene-finding to understanding disease risk in neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorders
Event details
| Date | 24.03.2017 |
| Hour | 11:00 › 12:00 |
| Speaker | Dr. Barbara Franke |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
From gene-finding to understanding disease risk in neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorders
Prof. Dr. Barbara Franke, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
These are great times in psychiatric genetics! Through international collaboration and technological progress we are finally starting to identify the genes for psychiatric disorders. Using genome-wide association and next generation sequencing, we end up with genes and genetic variants, that are statistically correlated with disease. In the first part of the presentation, I will show recent findings for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which is the particular focus of the research in my lab.
How can we go from the statistical definition of a link between gene and disease to a more biological understanding of the involvement of a gene and its variants? And how can we make such findings useful for the patient? In the second part of my presentation, I will discuss different approaches that we employ at different levels of organismal complexity. These include neuroimaging genetics research - linking genetics, brain, and behavior, bioinformatics approaches that may clarify the biochemical processes affected and enable lead identification for treatment innovation, and work in cell and animal models. For the latter, my group has recently pioneered the use of Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit fly, as a cheap and versatile small animal model for ADHD. I will show our first results using induced neuron models. Both of those can help us to move beyond correlation to causality for specific genes and variants. While every individual step of this research can improve our understanding of the disorder individually, solving the puzzle of ADHD etiology and improving treatment will require integration of research across levels and disciplines.
Prof. Dr. Barbara Franke, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
These are great times in psychiatric genetics! Through international collaboration and technological progress we are finally starting to identify the genes for psychiatric disorders. Using genome-wide association and next generation sequencing, we end up with genes and genetic variants, that are statistically correlated with disease. In the first part of the presentation, I will show recent findings for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which is the particular focus of the research in my lab.
How can we go from the statistical definition of a link between gene and disease to a more biological understanding of the involvement of a gene and its variants? And how can we make such findings useful for the patient? In the second part of my presentation, I will discuss different approaches that we employ at different levels of organismal complexity. These include neuroimaging genetics research - linking genetics, brain, and behavior, bioinformatics approaches that may clarify the biochemical processes affected and enable lead identification for treatment innovation, and work in cell and animal models. For the latter, my group has recently pioneered the use of Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit fly, as a cheap and versatile small animal model for ADHD. I will show our first results using induced neuron models. Both of those can help us to move beyond correlation to causality for specific genes and variants. While every individual step of this research can improve our understanding of the disorder individually, solving the puzzle of ADHD etiology and improving treatment will require integration of research across levels and disciplines.
Practical information
- General public
- Free