The National Institute of Mental Health has awarded Roel A. Ophoff, Ph.D., assistant professor of human genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, a $3.8 million grant to lead a four-year genetic study of schizophrenia in collaboration with scientists from the University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht in the Netherlands. 

Ophoff is also an associate professor of medical genetics and a member of the Rudolph Magnus Institute for Neuroscience at UMC Utrecht.

The joint project will be among the first to study the complete human genome — the full set of human genes — in order to pinpoint those related to schizophrenia. Ophoff and his colleagues will scrutinize the genomes of approximately 850 Dutch schizophrenia patients and 750 control subjects. 

"This genome-wide study is a radical departure from previous disease-association research, which focused on a single gene or a limited number of positions on the chromosome based on a small sample," explained Ophoff, a researcher at UCLA's Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics of the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.  

"Our approach will enable us to separate false clues from the real genes and chromosome positions associated with schizophrenia," he said.  "Once we identify the true genetic variants for the disease, we will be able to expand the study from Europeans to other ethnic populations."

Deciphering the disorder's genetic basis will benefit patients by improving diagnosis and potentially point to new and better therapies to treat schizophrenia, he noted.

The UCLA/UMC Utrecht team has collected extensive clinical information, including brain imaging, that will enable the researchers to expand their focus beyond the subjects' disease status. The international collaboration will afford access to a homogenous Dutch population and the opportunity for future follow-up with the same patients.

UCLA will create a database to make the study's DNA and clinical data available for future use by the scientific community. The large-scale genotyping will be performed at the high-volume facility of the Southern California Genotyping Consortium at UCLA. 

The Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior is an interdisciplinary research and education institute devoted to the understanding of complex human behavior, including the genetic, biological, behavioral and sociocultural underpinnings of normal behavior, and the causes and consequences of neuropsychiatric disorders. In addition to conducting fundamental research, the institute faculty seeks to develop effective treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders, improve access to mental health services, and shape national health policy regarding neuropsychiatric disorders. See http://www.npi.ucla.edu/ for more information.

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