Project Summary

Deborah L. Levy, Ph.D. (Independent Investigator 2007) of McLean Hospital, Harvard University, aims to identify endophenotypes -- traits associated with a clinical disorder – for bipolar disorder. A key challenge in clinical diagnosis of susceptibility for psychiatric illness is to improve the detection of gene carriers of the illness among well relatives. Endophenotype strategy has been applied in genetic studies of schizophrenia and the identification of genes for a number of nonpsychiatric disorders with complex genetic transmission. In the proposed research, Dr. Levy will examine the specificity and sensitivity of a candidate endophenotype for bipolar disorder and a different one for both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The possibility that some genes selectively increase liability to bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, and other genes contribute to liability for both, underscores the importance of identifying endophenotypes that can be used in the search for diagnosis-specific or psychosis-related genes.

Program Area: MOOD DISORDERS\Bipolar\Psychotic

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