Progress in Understanding the Genetic Basis of Mental Health
- Speaker
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Benjamin Neale, Ph.D.Associate Professor, Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Associate Professor, Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital
Associated Researcher, Broad Institute
Presidential Lectures are a series of free public colloquia spotlighting groundbreaking research across four themes: neuroscience and autism science, physics, biology, and mathematics and computer science. These curated, high-level scientific talks feature leading scientists and mathematicians and are designed to foster discussion and drive discovery within the New York City research community. We invite those interested in these topics to join us for this weekly lecture series.
The past decade has seen rapid progress in mapping genetic risk factors for autism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. In this talk, Benjamin Neale will review this progress, delving into how study designs and genetic variants are teaching us about different aspects of mental health. With that backdrop, he will then introduce the International Common Disease Alliance (ICDA), a nascent effort to bring the community together to tackle the challenge of moving from genetic maps to biological mechanisms and medicine. The ICDA has developed a set of recommendations for realizing the promise of human genetics to transform our understanding of and treatment for common diseases, such as autism.
Further instructions and access to join the webinar will be sent to all registrants upon sign up.
Inquiries: lectures@simonsfoundation.org
About the Speaker
Neale is an associate professor in the Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he directs the Genomics of Public Health Initiative. He is also an associate professor in medicine at Harvard Medical School and an institute member at the Broad Institute. Neale is strongly committed to gaining insights into the genetics of common, complex human diseases. Neale and Mark Daly, both of whom are associated with the Broad Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital, lead the ADHD Initiative. This collaborative effort focuses on genomic studies of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).