Building the world’s largest mental health multi-omics dataset

MHG is creating a nationally representative multi-omics resource across 20,000 deeply clinically characterised participants, built as two strands covering the conditions where the need for new treatments is most acute.

Severe depression

Led from King’s College London by Professor Gerome Breen, this strand builds on the GLAD (Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression) Study — one of the largest cohorts of its kind, whose volunteers have already shaped how this research is done — with partners at Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Edinburgh.

Psychosis

Led from Cardiff University by Professor James Walters, Director of the Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, with the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh. Multi-omic data generation across the whole cohort is led from Cardiff.

Why multi-omics

Combining genomic, epigenomic, proteomic and metabolomic data with clinical phenotypes and health records lets researchers look for the biological signatures behind the symptoms people actually experience — the foundation for biomarker discovery, stratified trials and, eventually, treatments matched to individuals.

More about the Multi-omics workstream.