Rhythms in Gene Expression Offer Clues
Rhythms in gene expression in the brain are highly disrupted in people with schizophrenia, according to a new University of Pittsburgh-led study.
The findings, published today by researchers from Pitt’s School of Medicine in the journal Nature Communications, also suggest that researchers studying schizophrenia-linked genes in the brain could have missed important clues that would help understand the disease.
“Our study shows for the first time that there are significant disruptions in the daily timing of when some genes are turned on or off, which has implications for how we understand the disease at a molecular level,” said senior author Colleen McClung, professor of psychiatry at Pitt’s School of Medicine.