Newswise — CHAPEL HILL, NC – March 9, 2020 – Scientists at the UNC School of Medicine and colleagues created a new computational tool called H-MAGMA to study the genetic underpinnings of nine brain disorders, including the identification of new genes associated with each disorder.
The research, published in Nature Neuroscience, revealed that genes associated with psychiatric disorders are typically expressed early in life, highlighting the likelihood of this early period of life as critical in the development of psychiatric illnesses. The researchers also discovered that neurodegenerative disorder-associated genes are expressed later in life. Lastly, the scientists linked these disorder-associated genes to specific brain cell types.
“By using H-MAGMA, we were able to link non-coding variants to their target genes, a challenge that had previously limited scientists’…
