Scientists dig deeper into the genetics of schizophrenia by evaluating microRNAs

The next step for the researchers is to find the many genes whose expression is controlled by the identified deficient microRNAs, which could in turn be involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Much more study and identification of other genetic variants must be done to further illuminate the disease’s genetic underpinnings, according to Drs. Karayiorgou and Gogos.

In this study, in addition to their colleagues from Columbia, first authors Kimberly Stark and Bin Xu, as well as co-authors Wen-Sung Lai, Ruby Hsu and Hui Liu, Drs. Karayiorgou and Gogos collaborated with Anindya Bagchi and Alea Mills at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Xiang Wan and Paul Pavlidis at the University of British Columbia.

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Lieber Center for Schizophrenia Research at Columbia University Medical Center, New York Academy of Sciences, a McKnight Brain Disorders Award, the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, and the EJLB Foundation.

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