Nearly all human traits, such as height, weight, and intelligence, and common disorders like major depressive and anxiety disorders are polygenic. This means that variation in more than one gene (usually many genes) contributes to total genetic predisposition for a specific trait or disorder. Chris outlines how Polygenic Risk Scores…
Neuroticism is a personality trait characterised by easily experiencing negative emotions. This A-Z blog offers some highlights of what is currently known about the genetic and environmental influences on neuroticism, as well as its overlap with and relevance for psychiatric disorders.
Decades of twin studies have yielded evidence of the heritability of many different traits. What we mean by this is the proportion of variation in a trait that can be explained by genetic differences between individuals. Research has moved towards identifying specific genetic variants associated with these traits through Genome-Wide…
In this post Professor Alice Gregory [EDIT Lab collaborator and former PhD student] discusses the aetiology of sleep problems – giving us a taster of what to expect from her book, ‘Nodding Off: The Science of Sleep’
This week in our A-Z post for ‘K’, Tom McAdams [EDIT Lab Associate Director] outlines Kinship, a core concept in the field of behavioural genetics.
Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide, contributing considerably to early mortality. Despite significant efforts, the genetics underlying depression has been difficult to identify and there has been limited progress in developing new treatments. Last month the largest genome-wide association study of depression was published in Nature Genetics (1)….
Heritability is the proportion of variation in a given population that is due to genetic differences. If a trait is highly heritable, it is more likely to be shared between individuals of close genetic relatedness, regardless of whether they share the same environment. This concept can be difficult to wrap…
Next in the ‘A-Z’ series is B, for ‘Biobank’ or ‘BioResource’. Biobanks and bioresources are frequently used to support an abundance of research looking into all kinds of different disorders and phenotypes. This blog outlines exactly what a biobank and a bioresource are, and how they are used to support…
Decades of twin studies have shown that childhood behaviour problems including anxiety, depression, conduct and hyperactivity are substantially heritable. However, our recent research found that individual differences in behaviour problems are not significantly influenced by the common DNA differences that we directly measure. This finding held across diverse domains of…
Last time out, I discussed options for replicating findings from a genome-wide association study when no appropriate cohort exists for replication. Perhaps the most effective solution was time – wait for more samples, get more power and prove those pesky doubters wrong. As all good sci-fi fans know (and as…
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