Todd Lencz

Please see our new work, led by @shaicarmi.bsky.social - in addition to a free online risk calculator, we demonstrate (for the first time), the degree to which real-world live birth rates attenuate the potential risk reduction in polygenic embryo screening (PES)

Given that we are unlikely to scale much beyond this enormous dataset anytime soon, this appears to be quite a negative result…

Concerns About Genetic Risk Testing for Opioid Use Disorder

We lay out three consensuses from the field of psychiatric genetics that should be considered before approving genetic tests for psychiatric disorders. The letter was signed by 140 experts in psychiatric genetics and published in Lancet Psychiatry. Now on Pubmed: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Congratulations, Sunny—All the more impressive given the current environment. Your work is truly at the cutting edge!

Leveraging correlations between variants in polygenic risk scores to detect heterogeneity in GWAS cohorts - PubMed Evidence from both GWAS and clinical observation has suggested that certain psychiatric, metabolic, and autoimmune diseases are heterogeneous, comprising multiple subtypes with distinct genomic etiolo...

This looks fascinating - I can’t wait to read it in detail.

I am wondering if your approach resembles something we tried on a much smaller scale a few years ago: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32956347/

Need to double-check but I think it could be design / MAF cut-offs for each type of study

More details at the link:
t.co/ThiWw7QdkU

Concordant SNPs (low cognition / increased SZ risk) were associated with early neurodevelopmental (prenatal) forebrain abnormalities. Discordant SNPs (high cognition / increased SZ risk) associated with adult synaptic function and hindbrain (cerebellar) development. (2/3)

New publication!
We expand on our prior work demonstrating that pleiotropic effects of cognitive GWAS can provide biological insights into schizophrenia GWAS results. We differentiated "concordant" from "discordant" subsets of schizophrenia risk SNPs (1/3)

💯 always take the reader by the hand and walk them through slowly paragraph by paragraph

Opinion | I.V.F., Gene Selection and Embryo Screening: Is This the Future of Making Babies? (Gift Article) Advances in genetic testing and artificial intelligence are changing what’s possible for those undergoing I.V.F. Are we ready for the future of fertility?

A very thoughtful and comprehensive piece on polygenic embryo screening in today's NY Times:
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Re-upping for the early crowd - link in reply

Circulating Blood-Based Proteins in Psychopathology and Cognition This mendelian randomization study identifies circulating proteins associated with risk for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and cognitive task performance.

We identified 113 Bonferroni-corrected putatively causal associations (46 novel) involving 91 proteins, providing support for repurposing of anti-inflammatory agents for SCZ, amantadine for BD, retinoic acid for MDD, and duloxetine for CTP.
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

New Paper!
Online now in JAMA Psychiatry, we have performed a large-scale Mendelian Randomization study of circulating proteins in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, and cognitive task performance.

But then you run right into DISC1

We have a position open in my lab. Please see my pinned post!

I'm hiring a postdoc and/or bioinformatician in
psychiatric genomics and related fields

acnp.org/wp-content/u...

Unsure how recent changes in U.S. policy regarding the NIH will impact the psychiatric genetics world? You're not alone. Join ISPG for a Member’s Meetup for community discussion and support:

📅 Wednesday, January 29
🕗 3 PM EST
📍 Pre-Register: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

For me, the simplicity and ease of both upload and download are the best parts or bioRxiv and medRxiv. (Bravo, Richard!)

If anything, I notice that the site sometimes hangs despite the simplicity of the interface, suggesting that the network is already loaded to capacity.

I’m recruiting for a postdoc position in psychiatric genetics

Come talk to me at poster M160!

acnp.org/wp-content/u...

On my way to #ACNP2024 🌵

Now recruiting for a #postdoc position in psychiatric genetics: t.co/Stst3V9agM

If you are interested in the genetics of psychotic disorders and their endophenotypes, check out my poster M160 on Monday!

a man in a sweater is standing in front of a door with christmas wreaths on it . ALT: a man in a sweater is standing in front of a door with christmas wreaths on it .

Guess who's joining the party over here?? 🎉🦋

@npp-journal.bsky.social
@dpn-journal.bsky.social &
@acnporg.bsky.social

Be sure to follow☝️ahead of #ACNP2024

very cool! cc: @kgjonas.bsky.social

Inconsistent embryo selection across polygenic score methods - Nature Human Behaviour Private enterprises offer preimplantation genetic testing with polygenic scores to select embryos with ‘desirable’ potential. In silico simulations using biobank resources show that the selected embry...

combined with similar results recently published in the context of polygenic embryo screening, this suggests the need for clear reporting standards for PRS implementation
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Evaluating Performance and Agreement of Coronary Heart Disease Polygenic Risk Scores This study aims to characterize the individual-level agreement of polygenic risk scores for coronary heart disease that perform similarly at the population level.

I think this JAMA article from last week received insufficient attention - different computations of PRS for the same disease, despite nearly identical population performance, resulted in very different classifications at the individual level #polygenicriskscores
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

NOW HIRING
#postdocjobs
NIH funding for a #postdoc with interest in complex genetics / computation / analysis
#GWAS #rarevariants #polygenicriskscores
in multiple research contexts:
psychiatric genomics; cognitive genomics; embryo screening...
acnp.org/wp-content/u...

More importantly, I think the process of writing grants is valuable for my scientific thought process, and improves my resulting science. I also think that 12 pages is a reasonable length - as a reviewer, I find myself revising & updating my opinions frequently as I read more pages.

I used to think this way, but I now tend to agree with a poster on X that suggests caution in making change, for fear of unintended consequences. If a partial lottery were implemented, reviewer scoring behavior would change, and we would lose the oversight and judgement of Program.

Just added the 106th amazing statistical/psychiatric geneticist! Even if you have seen this starter pack before have a look, find the new people filtering in!

Ok friends! I made a starter pack of psychiatric genetics people! Please let me know if you want to be added and share widely on other platforms to get our community here go.bsky.app/SkkmtMG