Your brain on genetics

There ’s nothing like seeing new perspectives through the study of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases.Dr. Daniel Geschwind— without getting too philosophical, he promises — is ready to explain why.Geschwind, the Gordon and Virginia MacDonald  Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics, Neurology and Psychiatry at UCLA, has been a pioneering neurogeneticist for more than 25 years, during which time a genomics revolution has allowed research, much of which has come out of UCLA, to show that psychiatric disorders have pathology that ties t hem together.In the last 10 years, hundreds of genes that increase susceptibility to neuropsychiatric disorders have been discovered, establishing biological origins of such disorders and helping to erase stigmas around their existence and cause. Geschwind ’s directorship of the UCLA Institute for Precision Health, where systems biology methods are applied in neurologic and psychiatric disease, has allowed UCLA researchers to lay the framework for new therapeutic development for many of these disorders.Geschwind hasbeen credited with shaping autism genetic research by helping to create and lead the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange — the first open-access resource for research on autism spectrum disorder. But it’s the lessons he’s learned from studying all neuropsychiatric conditions that have fed his curiosity and led him on this journey.“The challenge with studying brain disorders is that we do not yet have a wor...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news