Genomic background effects in psychiatric disorders

Some individuals carry disease-associated genomic variants, however, they exhibit no clinical phenotype. This suggests that additional factors such as genomic backgrounds (i.e. combinations of common variants) determine whether individuals develop specific phenotypes, including diseases. With recent advancements in genomics, we can now identify variants or their combinations that predispose individuals to disease risk, and search for new patient-specific therapies.

In this project, we will focus on the genetic risk of psychiatric disorders across different genomic backgrounds. The two aims are: to develop a computational method for comparing different combinations of disorder-associated variants, and to associate them with promising drugs. During the hackathon, we will use two public databases: ClinVar, to define and compare the genomic backgrounds of the disorders, and Open Targets, to find drug-variant associations. In the future, this method could also be extended to genetic predispositions underlying other disorders or diseases, for instance Alzheimer’s disease. The expected outcomes of this project will be important for future population-scale research in new therapeutic opportunities.