Integrating neuroimaging and genetics to identify drug targets for severe mental illness

Summary

There is an urgent need to identify better therapeutics for neurological and psychiatric diseases.

Project aims

To address this, the PhD candidate will first use large-scale neuroimaging and whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing from multiple datasets, including the UK Biobank, to identify genes that contribute to changes in brain structure and function from MRI scans.

Using existing summary genetic statistics for neurological and psychiatric disorders, they will identify shared genes that overlap with MRI phenotypes using multiple bioinformatics methods.

They will then investigate the causal relationship between MRI phenotypes and psychiatric conditions using methods such as Mendelian Randomisation.

Contact details

Dr Varun Warrier - vw260@cam.ac.uk

Opportunities

This project is open to applicants who want to do a:

• PhD