The long-term goals of this project are to identify genes that promote susceptibility to Bipolar Disorder (BP), a common and often devastating psychiatric illness. Rough chromosomal locations for genes contributing to BP have been identified through study of families and individual patients from the Costa Rican population. To refine the localizations of these genes, linkage disequilibrium (LD) analysis will be employed to identify haplotypes associated with BP in this population initially, methods for analysis of LD data will be tested through study of benign recurrent intrahepatic cholestasis (BRIC), because it demonstrates simpler patterns of inheritance than does BP, and because the region that contains the BRIC gene is quite clearly defined. To facilitate the fine mapping of genes for these diseases, a method for generating more accurate genetic maps of closely linked markers will be tested. Identifying genes for BP provides the promise of more precise diagnosis, more specific treatments, and greater understanding of the pathogenesis of the disorder.
