Physiogenomic Arrays for Clinical Neuropsychiatry

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, and depression are genetically complex diseases with multiple contributing genes. There is an urgent need for innovative technologies to study the multi-gene etiology of these disorders for early diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. Advances in the Genomas PhysioGenomicsTM technology allow us to develop disease related DMA arrays. These products will enable researchers to couple neuropsychiatric endophenotypes (e.g., structural and functional imaging of the brain) with genetic information from hundreds of genes, including single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and haplotypes, to build multi-gene DMA markers of disease. Genomas has developed unique capabilities in parallel processing of thousands of genetic markers through the Illumina BeadArrayTM technology. Hundreds of genes can be genotyped and haplotyped at once and incorporated into physiogenomic models of disease and pharmacological response. The goal of this project is to develop novel genetic analysis tools, the NeuroPsych Gene Array products, to simultaneously genotype 6,144 validated SNPs stemming from 1,000 candidate genes related to neuropsychiatry and neurodegeneration. In collaboration with Dr. Godfrey Pearlson, the performance of the products will be tested on several clinical populations related to schizophrenia, Alzheimer's Disease and depression from well characterized patient cohorts from the Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital. The subjects have been previously examined via functional imaging of the brain and diagnosed into well-defined endophenotypes of disease in addition to psychiatric clinical evaluation. The aim of the clinical pilot is the analysis of genetic markers potentially associated with endophenotypes. The NeuroPsych Gene Array products will find commercial application in basic, clinical and epidemiological research, and in the pharmaceutical, diagnostic and medical imaging industries. This program is proposed as a special two-year Phase I grant, under PA-04-086, "High Throughput Tools for Brain and Behavior-SBIR." The program will develop NeuroPsych Gene Array products as a new tool for systems understanding of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases leading to early diagnosis and personalized therapy.