Statistical, Translational, and Analytic Genetics Group (KCL)

Developmental Psychology & Psychopathology | King's College London This course will develop your knowledge about genetic and environmental causes of developmental psychopathology across the lifespan.

Interested in how mental health develops?

If your background is in psychology, biosciences, or a related field, our MSc in Developmental Psychology & Psychopathology at @kingsioppn.bsky.social could be your next step: www.kcl.ac.uk/study/postgr...

Join us in September – reach out to learn more!

Are you seeking a PhD in genomics or the application of AI to healthcare and therapeutics?

Check out KCL's new PhD programme in Genome Data Science for Therapeutic Target Discovery!

Apply by Saturday 28th February 2026, 23:59 GMT

Details and projects: www.kcl.ac.uk/research/tar...

Minor rebrand – we don't study Colemans anymore...

New, brief theoretical piece out in World Psychiatry: The Causal Structure of Mental Illness and Why It Matters. Not about genetics, I pursue one of my longest standing concerns, about relations between classification and reduction. Link is to whole issue; my piece starts on Page 3.

The transcription of a single olfactory receptor per neuron is enforced by epigenetic silencing of their enhancers The ability to discriminate thousands of odors in our environment requires each olfactory neuron to express a single olfactory receptor from hundreds of available genes. The biochemical mechanism enfo...

What a breakthrough! Such a puzzle for 30 years, this is real progress!

I wonder how general this mechanism of repression is for other systems where highly-selective expression is needed.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

@profarmour.bsky.social

👏🏻👏🏻 Jacob, as well as a host of coauthors: @chloewong.bsky.social @psychgenomics.bsky.social @thaliaeley.bsky.social @saakshikakar.bsky.social @annacarnegie.bsky.social @gursharankalsi.bsky.social @laurameldrum.bsky.social Iona Smith Shannon Bristow Molly Davies Cherie Armour

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We show differential trauma-by-polygenic score interactions across different trauma types (particularly childhood traumas). We then drill deeper to identify initial gene-by-trauma and variant-by-trauma interactions.

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🚨NEW PREPRINT ALERT!🚨

Jacob Knyspel investigated the moderating impact of exposure to different traumas on genetic risk for PTSD, using data from @ukbiobank.bsky.social, @gladstudy.bsky.social, @edgiuk.bsky.social and @nihrbioresource.bsky.social

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www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-8...

Pleased to have been able to contribute in a small way to this excellent review from Katrina Davis, outlining the value, limitations, and future of @ukbiobank.bsky.social for mental health research

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Fine-mapping genomic loci refines bipolar disorder risk genes - Nature Neuroscience This study used fine-mapping to analyze genetic regions associated with bipolar disorder, identifying specific risk genes and providing new insights into the biology of the condition that may guide fu...

Fantastic to see Maria Koromina's great work out in @natneuro.nature.com!

1. A deep look at potential "causal" genetic signals in bipolar disorder
2. A systematic exploration of the analytical choices involved in fine-mapping meta-analysis

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www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Can't post this without the acknowledgement:

"We dedicate this paper to Robert Keers, a wonderful friend, colleague, mentor and scientist, whom we lost too soon. This project continued in his absence, with contributions from many colleagues who helped to complete the work that he started."

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Genetics of monozygotic twins reveals the impact of environmental sensitivity on psychiatric and neurodevelopmental phenotypes Nature Human Behaviour - This study uncovered genetic associations with environmental sensitivity in psychiatric and neurodevelopmental traits in an international collaboration using data from more...

Very pleased to see this paper out in @nathumbehav.nature.com – a useful approach to understanding the role of genetics in sensitising people to their environments (and a sobering example of the sample sizes needed...!)

Fantastic work by lead Elham Assary!

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rdcu.be/eqmvJ

Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams

Thursday 19th June (14:00-16:00) with Emily Petherick, Loughborough University and Anthony Khawaja, UCL and Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Webinar registration link events.teams.microsoft.com/event/0f859b.... 4/4

Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams

Monday 16th June (10:00-12:00) with Catherine John, University of Leicester and Daniel Smith, University of Edinburgh

Webinar registration link: events.teams.microsoft.com/event/da8085....

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Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams

Tuesday 10th June (12.00-14.00) with Robert Maidstone, University of Manchester

Webinar registration link - events.teams.microsoft.com/event/4364bc... 2/4

I'm fortunate enough to be a Research Scholar with OurFutureHealth, the UK’s largest health research programme. They are hosting webinars for researchers to share the exciting opportunities this unique resource can offer your research. 1/4

The UK Biobank mental health enhancement 2022: Methods and results Background This paper introduces the UK Biobank (UKB) second mental health questionnaire (MHQ2), describes its design, the respondents and some notable findings. UKB is a large cohort study with over ...

Very pleased to see our paper describing the @ukbiobank.bsky.social second online mental health questionnaire has now been published in @plosone.org! This describes the origin of the resource as well as the data.

Fantastic work by Katrina Davis in leading this 👏👏👏

dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

Genome-wide association studies of binge eating behaviour and anorexia nervosa yield insights into the unique and shared biology of eating disorder phenotypes Eating disorders - including anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder - are clinically distinct but exhibit symptom overlap and diagnostic crossover. Genomic analyses have mos...

🚨 NEW PREPRINT ALERT! 🚨

Very pleased to have the latest @pgcgenetics.bsky.social eating disorders GWAS now out on medrxiv!

Featuring one first author from our group (Sang Hyuck) and one senior author (Joni), alongside 168 others!

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Depression: Understanding risk factors, symptoms and therapies YouTube video by Medical Research Foundation

Join Jean Campbell & Foundation-funded Dr @jonicoleman.bsky.social (@kingsioppn.bsky.social) for a thought-provoking conversation about #depression:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFeA...

This is part of our new collaboration with 'I'm Fine' podcast, exploring overlooked areas of medical research. #MedSky

Picture of Cathryn Lewis' research group at the SGDP Centre, waving and smiling.

📬New job 📬 Postdoc role on the AMBER project, to undertake genetic analyses of antidepressant response. Join us! Important science, rich data, nice people. Please repost. @kingsioppn.bsky.social
#depression #statistics #genetics #pharmacogenetics #antidepressants
my.corehr.com/pls/coreport...

Eugenics deserves a place in our genetics curriculum Eugenics, that promoted planned breeding to ensure 'racial improvement', was central to the development of genetics and led to horrifying policies. However, eugenics is not dead and continues to influ...

A much needed article by @peiferlabunc.bsky.social on the need for eugenics pseudoscience as a topic in genetics teaching- sadly not just for historic reasons. Also courageous in the current climate, even though it shouldn't have to be. Lots for my own teaching in @geneticscam.bsky.social

Slightly unfortunate departmental Bluesky name there: "Genetic Scam"...!

Genomics yields biological and phenotypic insights into bipolar disorder - Nature Using multi-ancestry genome-wide association study and fine-mapping, 298 loci and 36 credible genes are identified in the aetiology of bipolar disorder.

Another week, another major contribution from the @pgcgenetics.bsky.social !

This time, new GWAS of bipolar disorder. Threads to follow.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Depression symptom-specific genetic associations in clinically diagnosed and proxy case Alzheimer’s disease - Nature Mental Health Using genome-wide meta-analyses of clinical measures of depression and biobank data, the authors investigate symptom-specific genetic associations between depression and subsequent risk for Alzheimer’...

Just out — great work from Lachlan Gilchrist investigating the genetic relationship between depression and Alzheimer's. Pleased to have been able to contribute a little to this one. Open access, so read all about it below!

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

V. pleased to see this work out — huge effort from 10s of analysts, 100s of scientists, 1000000s of participants. 🤞 a key resource in future MDD research.

🤲 to @markjamesadams.bsky.social, @mcintosh2001.bsky.social and @cathrynlewis.bsky.social for leading.

Read all about it below.

Trans-ancestry genome-wide study of depression identifies 697 associations implicating cell types and pharmacotherapies Trans-ancestry GWAS of major depression identifies 697 genetic variants and 308 genes, implicating neural and molecular mechanisms and drug repurposing opportunities.

New study from the @pgcgenetics.bsky.social:

Multi-ancestry GWAS of MDD in over half a million cases and 4 million controls.

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

You wanted starter packs to be searchable. Our engineers are busy keeping us online, so in the meantime, an independent developer built a new searchable library of starter packs. This is the beauty of building in the open 🦋

🙏 also to all the other authors, but particularly to Katrina Davis for leading this multi-year effort!

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Code base for the definitions was a team effort in R, now public on GitHub: github.com/ColemanResea...

🙏 to @johanzvrskovec.bsky.social, @markjamesadams.bsky.social, Helena Davies, @topherhuebel.bsky.social, Danyang Li, Jared Maina, Meg Skelton, Abi ter Kulie, Rujia Wang, and Zhaoying Yu

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