Dr. Kendler in Psychiatry and Dr. Eaves in Human Genetics have developed a multidisciplinary research team in psychiatric genetics at MCV over the past decade. The team of ten scientists has demonstrated expertise in psychiatric phenomenology, assess-ment and diagnosis; psychiatric epidemiology; statistical analysis of genetic data; and gene mapping. They have conducted large-scale field studies in the US and abroad, prominent examples being the Virginia Twin Study and the study of schizophrenia in Ireland. The research program has addressed a large number of psychiatric disorders, including affective disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, bulimia, antisocial personality disorder, and substance abuse disorders. The applicant argues that the further development of the program is now impeded by a lack of infrastructure support. As examples, senior faculty are overburdened with fiscal management and personnel supervision; junior faculty are burdened with problems of database management and routine aspects of data collection and analysis. Resources to link the large Virginia Twin Study projects are lacking. Support for the molecular genetics laboratory to keep up with developments in that field is needed. Computer hardware and database software are strained by the large data sets that have been gathered. The applicant identifies 7 areas where infrastructure support is needed: administration, salaries for women and minorities, faculty training, database management and biostatistical support, genetics laboratory support, twin ascertainment and follow-up, and computing services. In addition, they would like resources to fund pilot projects. The applicant enumerates future research goals of the program and argues that the RISP grant is needed to accomplish them. These include linking the MCV adult and adolescent twin studies, developing new data analysis strategies for mapping susceptibility loci, expanding the Twins studies to include African-Americans, and others.
