Functional genomics of immune response to bacteria in schizophrenia

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a highly heritable neuropsychiatric disorder. Even though genome-wide association studies have successfully identified >100 susceptible loci, the vast majority of loci can only explain a small portion of the disease variance, suggesting environmental factors or gene-by-environment interactions (GEIs) may make significant contributions to SCZ.

Recent studies have shown that the gut microbiome plays critical roles in impacting schizophrenia-like behaviour. Because the host immune system significantly contributes to shaping bacterial flora in the gut, the main goal of this study is to establish an experimental and computational framework for the detection of genetic variants that interact with bacteria and increase risk of SCZ.