{"id":4236,"date":"2016-01-12T17:16:52","date_gmt":"2016-01-12T22:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?p=4236"},"modified":"2016-06-27T15:24:47","modified_gmt":"2016-06-27T19:24:47","slug":"untangling-mental-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/01\/untangling-mental-illness\/","title":{"rendered":"Untangling Mental Illness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Not long ago, many scientists expected that schizophrenia might be associated with a small set of genetic variants with a straightforward inheritance pattern.<\/p>\n<p>Douglas Ruderfer, \u201804, MS \u201805, and his colleagues, however, have helped to dispel that model: The disease is actually associated with thousands of variants scattered across the genome. The vast majority of these variants convey only a slightly increased risk for developing schizophrenia.<\/p>\n<p>Ruderfer, currently on the faculty at the<a href=\"http:\/\/icahn.mssm.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai<\/a> in New York, has contributed to several major papers on the genetics of schizophrenia and other psychiatric illnesses.<\/p>\n<p>Before coming to Mount Sinai, Ruderfer worked for several years at high-profile genetics labs at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.princeton.edu\/main\/\" target=\"_blank\">Princeton University<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.broadinstitute.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Broad Institute<\/a> (at MIT and Harvard). In 2013, he completed a PhD at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cardiff.ac.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">Cardiff University<\/a> in Wales. The British Council recently honored him with a 2015 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishcouncil.us\/education-alumni-awards\" target=\"_blank\">Education UK Alumni Awards\u2019 Entrepreneurial Award<\/a>, given annually to distinguished graduates of British universities.<\/p>\n<p>Among Ruderfer\u2019s current projects: using recent genetic findings to identify molecular targets for potential new psychiatric medications. \u201cThe picture is very complicated,\u201d he says. \u201cBut we did identify that particular proteins and pathways contribute to these disorders, and that\u2019s given us new headway toward thinking about treatments.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not long ago, many scientists expected that schizophrenia might be associated with a small set of genetic variants with a straightforward inheritance pattern. Douglas Ruderfer, \u201804, MS \u201805, and his colleagues, however, have helped to dispel that model: The disease is actually associated with thousands of variants scattered across the genome. The vast majority of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[227,228,229,230,231,232,233],"class_list":["post-4236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-douglas-ruderfer","tag-icahn-school-of-medicine-at-mount-sinai","tag-princeton-university","tag-broad-institute","tag-cardiff-university","tag-education-uk-alumni-awards-entrepreneurial-award","tag-schizophrenia","issue-winter-2016"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Untangling Mental Illness - JHU Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/01\/untangling-mental-illness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Untangling Mental Illness - JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Not long ago, many scientists expected that schizophrenia might be associated with a small set of genetic variants with a straightforward inheritance pattern. Douglas Ruderfer, \u201804, MS \u201805, and his colleagues, however, have helped to dispel that model: The disease is actually associated with thousands of variants scattered across the genome. The vast majority of...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/01\/untangling-mental-illness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-12T22:16:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-06-27T19:24:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Ruderfer_THUMB.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lisa Ercolano\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lisa Ercolano\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/untangling-mental-illness\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/untangling-mental-illness\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lisa Ercolano\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e033fd46575fe7a750db672a2f8f093a\"},\"headline\":\"Untangling Mental Illness\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-12T22:16:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-06-27T19:24:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/untangling-mental-illness\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":205,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/untangling-mental-illness\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/Ruderfer_THUMB.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Douglas Ruderfer\",\"Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai\",\"Princeton University\",\"Broad Institute\",\"Cardiff University\",\"Education UK Alumni Awards' Entrepreneurial Award\",\"schizophrenia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Alumni\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/untangling-mental-illness\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/untangling-mental-illness\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/untangling-mental-illness\\\/\",\"name\":\"Untangling Mental Illness - JHU Engineering Magazine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/untangling-mental-illness\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/untangling-mental-illness\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/Ruderfer_THUMB.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-12T22:16:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-06-27T19:24:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e033fd46575fe7a750db672a2f8f093a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/untangling-mental-illness\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/untangling-mental-illness\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/untangling-mental-illness\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/Ruderfer_THUMB.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/Ruderfer_THUMB.jpg\",\"width\":300,\"height\":200},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/untangling-mental-illness\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Untangling Mental Illness\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/\",\"name\":\"JHU Engineering Magazine\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e033fd46575fe7a750db672a2f8f093a\",\"name\":\"Lisa Ercolano\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c3b370808c9a9b4bff453cdd2777739e88b923072b77da6890ef05932c97f137?s=96&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c3b370808c9a9b4bff453cdd2777739e88b923072b77da6890ef05932c97f137?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c3b370808c9a9b4bff453cdd2777739e88b923072b77da6890ef05932c97f137?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lisa Ercolano\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Untangling Mental Illness - JHU Engineering Magazine","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/01\/untangling-mental-illness\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Untangling Mental Illness - JHU Engineering Magazine","og_description":"Not long ago, many scientists expected that schizophrenia might be associated with a small set of genetic variants with a straightforward inheritance pattern. Douglas Ruderfer, \u201804, MS \u201805, and his colleagues, however, have helped to dispel that model: The disease is actually associated with thousands of variants scattered across the genome. The vast majority of...","og_url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/01\/untangling-mental-illness\/","og_site_name":"JHU Engineering Magazine","article_published_time":"2016-01-12T22:16:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-06-27T19:24:47+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":200,"url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Ruderfer_THUMB.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Lisa Ercolano","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lisa Ercolano","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/01\/untangling-mental-illness\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/01\/untangling-mental-illness\/"},"author":{"name":"Lisa Ercolano","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/#\/schema\/person\/e033fd46575fe7a750db672a2f8f093a"},"headline":"Untangling Mental Illness","datePublished":"2016-01-12T22:16:52+00:00","dateModified":"2016-06-27T19:24:47+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/01\/untangling-mental-illness\/"},"wordCount":205,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/01\/untangling-mental-illness\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Ruderfer_THUMB.jpg","keywords":["Douglas Ruderfer","Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai","Princeton University","Broad Institute","Cardiff University","Education UK Alumni Awards' Entrepreneurial Award","schizophrenia"],"articleSection":["Alumni"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/01\/untangling-mental-illness\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/01\/untangling-mental-illness\/","url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/01\/untangling-mental-illness\/","name":"Untangling Mental Illness - JHU Engineering Magazine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/01\/untangling-mental-illness\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/01\/untangling-mental-illness\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Ruderfer_THUMB.jpg","datePublished":"2016-01-12T22:16:52+00:00","dateModified":"2016-06-27T19:24:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/#\/schema\/person\/e033fd46575fe7a750db672a2f8f093a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/01\/untangling-mental-illness\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/01\/untangling-mental-illness\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/01\/untangling-mental-illness\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Ruderfer_THUMB.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Ruderfer_THUMB.jpg","width":300,"height":200},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/01\/untangling-mental-illness\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Untangling Mental Illness"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/#website","url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/","name":"JHU Engineering Magazine","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/#\/schema\/person\/e033fd46575fe7a750db672a2f8f093a","name":"Lisa Ercolano","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c3b370808c9a9b4bff453cdd2777739e88b923072b77da6890ef05932c97f137?s=96&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c3b370808c9a9b4bff453cdd2777739e88b923072b77da6890ef05932c97f137?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c3b370808c9a9b4bff453cdd2777739e88b923072b77da6890ef05932c97f137?s=96&r=g","caption":"Lisa Ercolano"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4236"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4351,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4236\/revisions\/4351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}