Fascinating thread on human genetics as a source of drug targets. TL;DR: — strong human genetic data boosts odds of success for therapeutics — plenty of genetically validated targets still left to be drugged Excited to read the paper in more detail. HT Robert Plenge

Really nice study of dup15q syndrome, examining developmental and postnatal molecular changes in #autism, using both #organoids and post-mortem brain samples, by Yonatan Perez Dmitry Velmeshev Arnold Kriegstein and colleagues 🧬🧠🧫 biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Whole brain(!) in vivo gene editing to correct a point mutation in a ASD mice model. Li, Zhang, et al. Nat Neuro nature.com/articles/s4159…

Great use of cortical #organoids from Giuseppe Testa lab to dissect the effects of copy number variations at 7q11.2 at early stages of development, shedding light on the underlying neurobiology of #Williams Syndrome & #Autism Spectrum Disorder 🧠🧫 science.org/doi/full/10.11…

AI reviewing GWAS literature. Looks pretty cool. May be its time for me to retire. 😅 youtube.com/watch?v=sPiOP_…

Just a reminder that Cellpose2.0 is a great, free, fast option to quant all kinds of histology from immediate early genes to RNAscope etc. Counted cFos for n=12 mice across n=19 brain regions, totaling over 20k cells in ~2hrs github.com/mouseland/cell…

A new review summarizing my current thoughts on the neurobiology of schizophrenia: authors.elsevier.com/a/1iF293Q9h2Ee…

The first cellular map of a mammalian brain is here. 🧠✨ Over 6 years and 32 million cells in the making, the complete adult mouse brain cell-type atlas reveals astonishing diversity and regional specificity. Dive deeper: alleninstitute.org/scientists-unv… @nature #studyBRAIN #BICCN

An NIH advisory group announced today that they're recommending the agency boost its minimum #postdoc salary to $70,000, up from the current $56,484. Many postdocs feel "underpaid and overworked," a co-chair said. My latest for ScienceInsider: science.org/content/articl…

New Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience being created at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. Even got mentioned in the new release! 😁

Essay from a medical student suffering from bipolar disorder: "It left me wondering if society has the wrong idea [...] Yes, it may enhance aspects of creativity and productivity at times, but that does not detract from the struggle of living with a chronic illness."

Very good to see this very large study countering strong claims that maternal infection increases risk of autism in offspring. They found no evidence of an association.

I wrote down my rules on how to Science. I hope you find it useful!

Nice plot visualizing the effect sizes (vs carrier frequency) of common variants, rare variants, CNVs and polygenic score (top vs bottom decile) associated with ADHD. From a new Nat Rev Dis Primer on ADHD by Faraone et al. nature.com/articles/s4157…

Glad to see the psychiatric genetics researchers introducing the practice of adding polygenic score effect sizes in the MAF vs effect size plot x.com/doctorveera/st…

Northwestern Medicine scientists have been awarded a $17 million grant to study genetic causes of #autism and #schizophrenia, with the aim of developing new drugs to treat the conditions. spr.ly/6019eLusT

Five autism-associated transcriptional regulators target shared loci proximal to brain-expressed genes dlvr.it/T84fwQ

A Review in Nature Rev Neurosci describes our current understanding of the complex genetic architecture of schizophrenia and considers how the genomic findings can be interrogated to boost our understanding of the neurobiology of the disorder. 🔒 go.nature.com/3zZpKY6

Come see new work from penzes lab members #sfn2024. Saturday afternoon "synapses", poster session B. Jessica Christiansen on novel regulatory sites in schizophrenia risk gene TRIO - poster B67. Marc Forrest on homeostatic plasticity in 16p11.2 duplication - poster B68.