Biography
I am a psychiatric geneticist who works on the genetics of affective (mood) disorders, psychosis and eating disorders. One of the most important goals for my research is to discover the biological basis of common psychiatric disorders, which will allow better drug discovery and biomarker studies in mental health. Not only that but they can also be used to improve estimations of response to psychological treatments and to help improve clinical trial approaches. Because someone’s DNA sequence does not change after diagnosis or treatment, genetics is often the best approach for this.
I am heavily involved in a number of international genetic consortia which are driving the field of psychiatric genetics forward at a faster pace than ever before, with more than 500 variants for common psychiatric disorders recently discovered.
I am currently running The Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression or GLAD study with my close collaborator Prof Thalia Eley. You can hear us talking about the study here, and can watch an animation about the study here. I lead the NIHR Mental Health BioResource, of which GLAD is the first study, which aims to recruit >100,000 participants in the next 5 years. I am a theme lead in the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre.
Research interests:
- Eating disorders
- Mood disorders
- Genetics systems biology
Expertise and Public Engagement:
I frequently take part in radio and TV on psychiatric genetics and as a consulted expert by the media when new findings come out. I work with charities including the Beat eating disorders charity in the UK and have worked with many others in designing and carrying out the PR campaign for our new National Mental Health BioResource. Our first project in this is the Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression or GLAD project, which has been joint work with Thalia Eley, has recruited 20,000 in the first three months of the study and which has also been – perhaps - the most prominent psychiatric genetics recruitment study in the new era of social media (www.gladstudy.org.uk).
Research groups:
Translational and Neuropsychiatric Genetics Group
-
Giannelis, A., Palmos, A., Hagenaars, S. P., Breen, G., Lewis, C. M. & Mutz, J., 10 Oct 2020, In : Journal of Affective Disorders. Research output: Contribution to journal - Article. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.10.017
-
23andMe Research Team, Major Depressive Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, Oct 2020, In : American Journal of Psychiatry. 177, 10, p. 944-954 11 p. Research output: Contribution to journal - Article. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2020.19111158
-
Xavier, G., Santoro, M. L., Ota, V. K., Spindola, L. M., Oliveira, G., Vieira, T., Micali, D., de Jong, S., Noto, C., Gadelha, A., Cordeiro, Q., Bressan, R. A., Breen, G. & Belangero, S. I., Jun 2020, In : Schizophrenia Research. 220, p. 285-286 2 p. Research output: Contribution to journal - Letter. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2020.03.033
-
CoroNerve Study Group, Oct 2020, In : The lancet. Psychiatry. 7, 10, p. 875-882 8 p. Research output: Contribution to journal - Article. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30287-X
-
Badini, I., Coleman, J., Hagenaars, S., Hotopf, M., Breen, G., Lewis, C. & Fabbri, C., 6 Jul 2020, In : Psychological medicine. Research output: Contribution to journal - Article. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291720002342
-
Lewis, C., Hagenaars, S., Howard, D., Coleman, J. & Breen, G., 20 May 2020, (Accepted/In press) In : American Journal of Medical Genetics. Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics. AJMGB32807. Research output: Contribution to journal - Article. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.1101/645077
-
Hindocha, C., Quattrone, D., Freeman, T. P., Murray, R. M., Mondelli, V., Breen, G., Curtis, C., Morgan, C. J. A., Valerie Curran, H. & Di Forti, M., 1 Dec 2020, In : Translational psychiatry. 10, 1, 143. Research output: Contribution to journal - Article. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-020-0823-9
-
Jermy, B., Hagenaars, S., Glanville, K., Coleman, J., Howard, D., Breen, G., Vassos, E. & Lewis, C., 10 Jun 2020, In : Psychological Medicine. Research output: Contribution to journal - Article. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291720001828
-
Eating Disorders Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, International Headache Genetics Consortium & 23andMe Research Team, 1 May 2020, In : Nature Genetics. 52, 5, p. 482-493 12 p. Research output: Contribution to journal - Article. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-0610-9
-
Akingbuwa, W. A., Hammerschlag, A. R., Jami, E. S., Allegrini, A. G., Karhunen, V., Sallis, H., Ask, H., Askeland, R. B., Baselmans, B., Diemer, E., Hagenbeek, F. A., Havdahl, A., Hottenga, J. J., Mbarek, H., Rivadeneira, F., Tesli, M., Van Beijsterveldt, C., Breen, G., Lewis, C. M., Thapar, A. & 15 others, Boomsma, D. I., Kuja-Halkola, R., Reichborn-Kjennerud, T., Magnus, P., Rimfeld, K., Ystrom, E., Jarvelin, M. R., Lichtenstein, P., Lundstrom, S., Munafò, M. R., Plomin, R., Tiemeier, H., Nivard, M. G., Bartels, M. & Middeldorp, C. M., Jul 2020, In : JAMA Psychiatry. 77, 7, p. 715-728 14 p. Research output: Contribution to journal - Article. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.0527