This 2013 file photo provided by Cardiff University shows Dr. Michael O'Donovan, deputy director of the MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics at Cardiff University School of Medicine in Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. (AP Photo/Cardiff University School of Medicine) Scientists have linked more than 100 spots in our DNA to the risk of developing schizophrenia, casting light on the mystery of what makes the disease tick. Such work could eventually point to new treatments, although they are many years away. Already, the new results provide the first hard genetic evidence to bolster a theory connecting the immune system to the disease. More than 100 researchers from around the world collaborated in the biggest-ever genomic mapping of schizophrenia, for which scientists had previously uncovered only about a couple of dozen risk-related genes. The study included the genetic codes of more than 150,000 people - nearly 37,000 of them diagnosed with the disease. Researchers found 108 genetic markers for risk of getting the disease, 83 of them not previously reported. And scientists say there are still likely more to be found. "It's a genetic revelation; schizophrenia has been a mystery," said study co-author Steve McCarroll, director of genetics for the Broad … Continue reading →

The news comes on the same day as a $650-million donation to expand psychiatric research Broad population studies are shedding light on the genetic causes of mental disorders. Credit: Thinkstock Researchers seeking to unpick the complex genetic basis of mental disorders such as schizophrenia have taken a huge step towards their goal. A paperpublished inNaturethis week ties 108genetic locations to schizophrenia most for the first time. The encouraging results come on the same day as a US$650-million donation to expand research into psychiatric conditions. Philanthropist Ted Stanley gave the money to the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The institute describes the gift as the largest-ever donation for psychiatric research. The assurance of a very long life of the center allows us to take on ambitious long-term projects and intellectual risks, says its director, Steven Hyman. The center will use the money to fund genetic studies as well as investigations into the biological pathways involved in conditions such as schizophrenia, autism and bipolar disorder. The research effort will also seek better animal and cell models for mental disorders, and will investigate chemicals that might be developed into drugs. TheNaturepaperwas produced by the Psychiatric Genomics … Continue reading →

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Scientists have linked more than 100 spots in our DNA to the risk of developing schizophrenia, casting light on the mystery of what makes the disease tick. Such work could eventually point to new treatments, although they are many years away. Already, the new results provide the first hard genetic evidence to bolster a theory connecting the immune system to the disease. More than 100 researchers from around the world collaborated in the biggest-ever genomic mapping of schizophrenia, for which scientists had previously uncovered only about a couple of dozen risk-related genes. The study included the genetic codes of more than 150,000 people - nearly 37,000 of them diagnosed with the disease. Researchers found 108 genetic markers for risk of getting the disease, 83 of them not previously reported. And scientists say there are still likely more to be found. "It's a genetic revelation; schizophrenia has been a mystery," said study co-author Steve McCarroll, director of genetics for the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. "Results like this give you things to work on. It takes it out of the zone of guesses about which genes are relevant." The results were … Continue reading →

Brescia hospital ordered to let discredited therapy resume (ANSA) - Brescia, July 22 - A controversial stem-cell treatment was administered to a child suffering from muscular dystrophy at a hospital in northern Italy on Tuesday despite having been discredited. The Stamina treatment was administered on the orders of a Sicilian court after the hospital in Brescia decided to suspend the procedure on the boy suffering from Duchenne muscula dystrophy because it had been called into doubt. The child "will remain in observation for a few hours and we will carry out a few tests," said Giuseppe Morfino, the court-appointed doctor leading the external team that performed the treatment. Morfino added that the atmosphere at the hospital had been cooperative. The credibility of the Stamina treatment, which involves extracting bone-marrow stem cells from a patient, supposedly turning them into neurons by exposing them to retinoic acid for two hours, and injecting them back into the patient, has long been suspect, and last autumn the health ministry ruled that the Stamina Foundation would no longer be allowed to test the treatment on humans. The foundation was also stripped of its non-profit status after a study found its treatment was "ignorant of stem-cell … Continue reading →