From Schizophrenia Genetics to Disease Biology: Harnessing New Concepts and Technologies

Schizophrenia (SZ) is a severe mental disorder afflicting around 1% of the population. It is highly heritable but with complex genetics. Recent research has unraveled a plethora of risk loci for SZ. Accordingly, our conceptual understanding of SZ genetics has been rapidly evolving, from oligogenic models towards polygenic or even omnigenic models. A pressing challenge to the field, however, is the translation of the many genetic findings of SZ into disease biology insights leading to more effective treatments. Bridging this gap requires the integration of genetic findings and functional genomics using appropriate cellular models. Harnessing new technologies, such as the development of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) and the CRISPR/Cas-based genome/epigenome editing approach are expected to change our understanding of SZ disease biology to a fundamentally higher level. Here, we discuss some new developments.