PI Name: Scott Fears
Institution: UCLA

Abstract:

The general strategy of this DBP is the systematic construction of a large phenomic space in order to identify brain-behavior-biochemical ‘composite phenotypes’ that more accurately characterize underlying genetic architecture of neurobehavioral traits and provide better power for gene mapping studies that will ultimately identify candidate genes for psychiatric disorders. We have collected a large set of structural brain images from four different sources that include two pedigreed samples, and two case-control samples. We will leverage the statistical power provided by the structure of the pedigree samples to implement linkage analysis with the composite phenotypes and then perform association studies in the case-control samples to replicate and narrow the genomic regions of interest.