Stem Cell Model Could Help To Study Psychiatric Disorders
Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine have applied a stem cell model to map disease risk variants in human neurons. This could help provide insights into the biological mechanisms that underlie neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. The research could potentially lead to improved diagnostics for detecting psychiatric disorders years before symptoms appear in patients.
GWAS (genome-wide association studies) researchers have developed stem cell models that can help resolve the impact of patient-specific variants across cell types, genetic backgrounds, and environmental conditions. Dr. Yang, major researcher from the Icahn School of Medicine, believes her team's study can significantly benefit the research community by characterizing cell-type specific and activity-regulated gene expression patterns in human cell-derived neurons.
"Our data could lead to the development of biomarkers that might detect neuropsychiatric disorders years before they manifest themselves in patients," she says.
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