Danielle Posthuma, PhD
Department Head and Professor, Complex Trait Genetics
Vrije Universiteit (VU) University Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Medical Center
From GWAS to Function: Bridging the Gap Between Genetics and Neuroscience
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have successfully identified many novel loci for neuropsychiatric traits. At the same time the results of GWAS showed that these traits are highly polygenic, mostly influenced by large numbers of weakly associated variants. Interpreting such polygenic results is challenging, and complicates formulating mechanistic hypotheses that can be tested in functional experiments. Recent large-scale initiatives, such as those from the Allen Brain Institute and the PyschEncode consortium provide fine-scaled atlases of functional genetic elements at cellular level. This novel information can be used to interpret results from GWAS studies and facilitate the formulation of testable hypotheses. Close collaboration with neuroscientists is however needed to ensure generated hypotheses are useful. In this session, I will discuss how we can leverage both GWAS results and novel functional genomic resources to formulate hypotheses that can be tested in functional experiments, and how close collaboration between geneticists and neuroscientists facilitates this. I will discuss the need to bridge the gap between genetics and neuroscience and which obstacles may be encountered.
