Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that affects how people think and behave. It requires lifelong treatment.
About 1 in 4 people with 22q will develop schizophrenia. We would like to find out why some people have it and some do not. Specifically, what other genetic factors increase a person’s risk of developing schizophrenia?
Our team, led by Dr. Anne Bassett, has been working together with Dr. Ryan Yuen’s team and international researchers on schizophrenia genetics. We recently published our findings. Among people with 22q, those who developed schizophrenia have more tandem repeat expansions in their DNA than those without. These expansions affect the expression of some genes, including some that are important in thinking and behaviour.
Our findings are published in a UHN Research News article called Identifying Genetic Modifiers - Rare DNA changes may influence schizophrenia diagnosis in high-risk individuals. We invite you to check it out.
Original publication Genome-wide tandem repeat expansions modify schizophrenia risk in the presence of a 22q11.2 deletionCheng M, Yin Y, Engchuan W, Heung T; International 22q11.2 Brain Behavior Consortium (IBBC); Morrow BE, Bassett AS, Yuen RKC. Mol Psychiatry. 2026 Apr 15.doi: 10.1038/s41380-026-03574-8. Epub ahead of print