Huge Brain Study Uncovers “Buried” Genetic Networks Linked to Mental Illness

Cassidy Mullen

Ippolito C Even

Current Event #11

December 11, 2018

Geddes, Linda. “Huge Brain Study Uncovers ‘Buried’ Genetic Networks Linked to Mental

Illness.” Scientific American, 14 Dec. 2018,

www.scientificamerican.com/article/huge-brain-study-uncovers-buried-genetic-networks-linked-to-mental-illness/.

Pinpointing how gene variants contribute to diseases has been a large setback in the past, but recently discovery has given doctors insight into the driving force of brain conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. These are neuropsychiatric disorders that involve hundreds of genes which interact with their environment and contributes to only a small amount to the overall disease risk. In the last ten years, many genetic variants have been identified which are associated with these disorders, but it’s unclear how the DNA sequence changes the ways the genes function. Researchers recently uncovered networks of genes that have been unidentified in the past along with the discovery of elements buried in the ‘dark matter’ of a genome which regulates gene expression and could contribute to disorders relating to brain conditions. In addition, there are regions in DNA which, were previously considered useless, that do not code for proteins.  Inside these areas are elements that regulate gene expression and could have a powerful influence on a person’s risk for a disease.

A molecular biologist at Yale University, Mark Gerstein acknowledges that they have not figured out the “underlying mechanism of these diseases, or how you would go about designing drugs,” but they are “highlighting genes, pathways and also cell types that are associated with these diseases.” By taking brain tissue from 1,866 cadavers and using genomic-sequencing techniques to study them, the researchers were able to make connections between specific genes and noncoding DNA variants which have been linked to neuropsychiatric diseases in the past. This makes it easier to find the variants that actually alter how genes function and contribute to brain conditions.  Clearly, the search for the root of the problem is still underway, but discovering new possibilities and eliminating options could lead to a possible cure in the future. Once the specific cause of neuropsychiatric disorders is found, it will be much easier to find a cure that specifically targets and eliminates the problem.

I thought that this article was very interesting. I was upset by the fact that this idea is still very underdeveloped because there is lots more research to be done and the cause of brain disorders is still unknown, so I think that the title, “Huge Brain Study Uncovers “Buried” Genetic Networks Linked to Mental Illness.” gave me a little bit of false hope. This article was a little bit difficult to follow because it used a lot of specific medical vocabulary, but it also explained some of the terms used which was helpful. I appreciate the fact that Gerstein acknowledges, “We’re not claiming in the remotest way to have figured out the underlying mechanism of these diseases.” This contributes to the credibility of the article.