Integrative Mental Health Laboratory, the IMHL
April 2019 PAPER
Duncan, Ostacher, & Ballon (2019)
Using an analytical approach and schizophrenia GWAS results, our new piece demonstrates, 'How genome-wide association studies (GWAS) made traditional candidate gene studies obsolete'. Published in Neuropsychopharmacology (pdf), with coverage here.
April 2020 Award
Chairman's Award: Advancing Science 2020
Dr. Duncan received the Charman's Award for Advancing Science in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University.
April 2019 PAPER
Duncan, Ostacher, & Ballon (2019)
Using an analytical approach and schizophrenia GWAS results, our new piece demonstrates, 'How genome-wide association studies (GWAS) made traditional candidate gene studies obsolete'. Published in Neuropsychopharmacology (pdf), with coverage here.
Early 2020 - CONGRATS on Acceptances in top program programs!!!
April 2019 PAPER
Duncan, Ostacher, & Ballon (2019)
Using an analytical approach and schizophrenia GWAS results, our new piece demonstrates, 'How genome-wide association studies (GWAS) made traditional candidate gene studies obsolete'. Published in Neuropsychopharmacology (pdf), with coverage here.
January 2020 Paper
Shen et al. Neuropsychopharmacology
We report findings from the largest psychiatric GWAS in South America to date and provide summary statistics for depression, PTSD, and suicidal ideation/self-harm in this Peruvian sample. Out now in NPP (pdf, link) / Neuropsychopharmacology. Congrats to Hanyang and thanks to awesome collaborators: Drs. Bizu Gelaye, Marta Rondon, Sixto Sanchez, and Hailiang Huang!
Hanyang Shen Bryna Cooper Benson Kung
Stanford PhD Program Harvard / Massachusetts Mental Stanford Master's coterm
Epidemiology Clinical Psychology Internship Computer Science
April 2019 PAPER
Duncan, Ostacher, & Ballon (2019)
Using an analytical approach and schizophrenia GWAS results, our new piece demonstrates, 'How genome-wide association studies (GWAS) made traditional candidate gene studies obsolete'. Published in Neuropsychopharmacology (pdf), with coverage here.
November 2019 Grant
Benson Kung
Congrats to Benson Kung for being awarded an Undergraduate Research Grant from Stanford for his work using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning to improve understanding of psychiatric disorder symptom trajectories.
April 2019 PAPER
Duncan, Ostacher, & Ballon (2019)
Using an analytical approach and schizophrenia GWAS results, our new piece demonstrates, 'How genome-wide association studies (GWAS) made traditional candidate gene studies obsolete'. Published in Neuropsychopharmacology (pdf), with coverage here.
Published in Cell, this primer provides best practices for the analysis of genomic data from diverse populations. This is the flagship paper of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) Cross-Population Special Interest Group (chairs Duncan & Huang), and it was made possible via collaborative efforts from multiple leading statistical genetics groups around the globe.
April 2019 PAPER
Duncan, Ostacher, & Ballon (2019)
Using an analytical approach and schizophrenia GWAS results, our new piece demonstrates, 'How genome-wide association studies (GWAS) made traditional candidate gene studies obsolete'. Published in Neuropsychopharmacology (pdf), with coverage here.
August 2019 Presentation
Alex Bhatt
Summer undergraduate research student Alex Bhatt presented at the poster session. Congrats Alex!!
April 2019 PAPER
Duncan, Ostacher, & Ballon (2019)
Using an analytical approach and schizophrenia GWAS results, our new piece demonstrates, 'How genome-wide association studies (GWAS) made traditional candidate gene studies obsolete'. Published in Neuropsychopharmacology (pdf), with coverage here.
July 2019 PAPER
Duncan et al. (2019)
Our recent work in Nature Communications (pdf) demonstrates that polygenic scoring studies have overwhelmingly included European ancestry populations. Moreover, polygenic scores perform poorly in many populations as a result of the limited ancestral diversity in many medical genetics studies.
April 2019 PAPER
Duncan, Ostacher, & Ballon (2019)
Using an analytical approach and schizophrenia GWAS results, our new piece demonstrates, 'How genome-wide association studies (GWAS) made traditional candidate gene studies obsolete'. Published in Neuropsychopharmacology (pdf), with coverage here.
June 2019 Teaching award
Dr. Duncan
Dr. Duncan received an award for excellence in teaching from the Stanford Psychiatry Residents.
April 2019 PAPER
Duncan, Ostacher, & Ballon (2019)
Using an analytical approach and schizophrenia GWAS results, our new piece demonstrates, 'How genome-wide association studies (GWAS) made traditional candidate gene studies obsolete'. Published in Neuropsychopharmacology (pdf), with coverage here.
April 2019 PAPER
Duncan, Ostacher, & Ballon (2019)
Using an analytical approach and schizophrenia GWAS results, our new piece demonstrates, 'How genome-wide association studies (GWAS) made traditional candidate gene studies obsolete'. Published in Neuropsychopharmacology (pdf), with coverage here.
December 2018 PAPER
Duncan, Cooper, & Shen (2018)
For a concise review of what is known about PTSD genetics, see our lab's recent review, 'Robust Findings from 25 Years of PTSD Genetics Research' in Current Psychiatry Reports. Scope Blog coverage here, and paper download here.
October 2018 PAPER
Kimerling, Allen, & Duncan (2018)
We are delighted to share this comprehensive overview of multi-level influences on PTSD risk, across sex and gender (lead author Dr. Rachel Kimerling). See 'Chromosomes to Social Contexts: Sex and Gender Differences in PTSD' in Current Psychiatry Reports (link and pdf).
November 2018 GRANT
WHSDM seed grant awarded (PI Duncan)
Our work investigating the causes of differences in PTSD, between women and men, was awarded a seed grant from WHSDM at Stanford.. Building upon our previous work with the international Psychiatric Genomics Consortium's PTSD group, we will be testing hypotheses about differing genetic risk factors in women and men, which can ultimately be leveraged to improve the treatment and prevention of trauma-related disorders.
June 2018 PAPER
Brainstorm Consortium (2018) Science
Analysis of over 1 million individuals revealed that psychiatric and neurological disorders are relatively genetically distinct from one another. This analysis also supports previous findings of shared genetic effects across psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, and PTSD. Popular media coverage is available: Scientific American, The Economist. and congrats especially to Verneri Antilla (lead author).
2018 PAPER
Duncan et al. (2018) Schizophrenia Bulletin
Genetic correlation analyses reveal relationships between schizophrenia and personality traits (openness to experience and neuroticism) and also suggest a novel underlying pathway involving citrate. Intriguingly, this mechanism may link polygenic forms of schizophrenia (encompassing most cases) with rare instances caused by 22q11.2 deletions. This work was in collaboration with the INSPIRE early psychosis team; paper download here.
Dr. Daniel Pine, of the American Journal of Psychiatry highlights an article titled "Significant Locus and Metabolic Genetic Correlations Revealed in Genome-Wide Association Study of Anorexia Nervosa" by Laramie Duncan, Ph.D., and colleagues.
September 2017 AJP editor spotlight video on YouTube: (video)
July 2017: TEACHING
Global Initiative for Neuropsychiatric Genetics Education in Research (GINGER)
Scholars from multiple African nations gathered in Boston in for the GINGER program, which is a collaboration between the Harvard Chan School, the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and multiple African universities and institutes. Our lab contributed lectures for the event and it was exciting to meet these talented researchers.