Researchers link schizophrenia to genetics and biology for first time – video

Steven McCarroll, the director of the Stanley Centre for Psychiatric Research, Beth Stevens, an assistant professor of neurology at Boston Children's Hospital, and Eric Lander, the director of the Broad Institute, discuss efforts to understand if there is a link between molecular and cellular events and the development of schizophrenia. A study by the Broad Institute says people are more at risk of schizophrenia if they inherit genes that lead to excessive loss of healthy brain synapses during adolescence. The study says a person's risk of schizophrenia is increased if they inherit specific variants in a gene related to 'synaptic pruning' - the elimination of connections between neurons. The findings represent the first time the origin of the disease has been causally linked to specific gene variants and a biological process

" Schizophrenia breakthrough as genetic study reveals link to brain changes