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For patients with a rare brain tumor known as craniopharyngioma, the treatment options are slim — and often hazardous. Although the tumor is usually not aggressive, its location is perilous. Growing at the base of the skull near the pituitary gland, the tumor compresses parts of the brain as it enlarges, causing vision and learning problems and endocrine dysfunction, as well as morbid obesity. There is currently no drug to shrink the tumor, so the only options are surgical removal and radiation, which can leave patients with serious, lasting problems.

Ancestral legacy

It’s part of human nature: we look at ourselves in the mirror and see links to the past. “Those bright green eyes?” we think. “Those came from grandma.” “The cleft chin? That’s from dad’s side.” Our instinct, of course, is to attribute notable traits to close relatives – those that we know personally or through family history. The reality, however, is that the genetics that influence our traits – or “phenotypes” – could date back generations. Some may have been introduced into human lineages more than 40,000 years ago.

Researchers from the ӳý and several partnering institutions have taken a closer look at the human genome to learn more about the genetic underpinnings of schizophrenia. In two studies published this week in Nature, scientists analyzed the exomes, or protein-coding regions, of people with schizophrenia and their healthy counterparts, pinpointing the sites of mutations and identifying patterns that reveal clues about the biology underlying the disorder.