The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has received a new five-year, $15.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to lead the next phase of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC), one of the world's largest and most influential collaborations in psychiatric research.
Led by UNC's Patrick F. Sullivan, MD, the PGC brings together 1,772 investigators from 66 countries to understand the genetic and biological foundations of serious mental illnesses. Over nearly two decades, the consortium has produced more than 800 scientific publications, including landmark studies in Nature, Science and Cell that have transformed understanding of schizophrenia, major depression, bipolar disorder and other psychiatric conditions. The new award, supported by the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, represents a major investment in UNC's leadership in international biomedical research.
The project, "Psychiatric Genomics Consortium: Mechanisms and Translation," will launch the consortium's fifth phase (PGC5), dramatically expanding its research scope. The PGC plans to increase its genetic datasets from approximately two million to nearly six million people with psychiatric disorders, creating unprecedented opportunities to identify genes associated with mental illness. Researchers will investigate why psychiatric disorders frequently occur together, why individuals with similar genetic risks can have very different outcomes and how genetic discoveries can reveal the underlying biology of these conditions. By integrating large-scale genetic studies with cutting-edge neuroscience and functional genomics, the project aims to identify biological pathways and potential targets for developing better treatments.
"This award is an extraordinary opportunity to build on nearly 20 years of collaborative science and move closer to understanding the biological causes of serious mental illness," Dr. Sullivan said. "The PGC has shown what is possible when scientists around the world work together, share data and tackle problems too large for any single institution. Our next challenge is to turn genetic discoveries into biological understanding that can ultimately benefit patients." PGC leaders at UNC include Cynthia Bulik, PhD, FAED (eating disorders), James Crowley, PhD (OCD), and Jerry Guintivano, PhD, (media outreach).
The project is co-led by Drs. Arpana Agrawal, Ole Andreassen, and Cathryn Lewis, with UNC serving as the coordinating institution for an extensive international network. The new funding secures the next five years of this internationally recognized scientific enterprise, reinforcing UNC's position at the forefront of psychiatric genetics and the search for more effective approaches to mental illness.
PGC Website: https://pgc.unc.edu/
