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Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder run in families. Up to 80 percent of cases can be traced to inheritance, but determining exactly which genetic variants among millions of possibilities that might be responsible has proved challenging.

Two studies combining thousands of patient samples – more than 10,000 people with schizophrenia and more than 7,000 people with bipolar disorder, plus larger numbers of unaffected people – have allowed differences in DNA associated with the diseases to rise above a vast sea of statistical noise.

Ben Neale and Mark Daly

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is one of the most common disorders in children, often disrupting not only the early years but also adulthood. Yet, the genes that underlie it remain unknown. To accelerate understanding the genetics of this disorder, Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. has pledged $4.6 million through the Gerstner Family Foundation to launch a bold new program focused on genomic studies of ADHD.

Ranking as one of the leading types of cancer, claiming nearly 50,000 lives each year in the United States alone, colorectal cancer represents a huge clinical burden. For this reason, researchers have long pursued a deeper understanding of how this cancer type develops and grows. Recent advances in the technology of whole genome sequencing, in which a tumor’s complete genetic sequence is determined and compared with that of normal tissue, are yielding surprising new findings underlying the genetics of colorectal cancer.