Author
David M. Hougaard
Other affiliations: Utrecht University, Lundbeck, Aarhus University
Bio: David M. Hougaard is an academic researcher from Statens Serum Institut. The author has contributed to research in topics: Population & Genome-wide association study. The author has an hindex of 73, co-authored 371 publications receiving 32004 citations. Previous affiliations of David M. Hougaard include Utrecht University & Lundbeck.
Papers published on a yearly basis
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TL;DR: Associations at DRD2 and several genes involved in glutamatergic neurotransmission highlight molecules of known and potential therapeutic relevance to schizophrenia, and are consistent with leading pathophysiological hypotheses.
Abstract: Schizophrenia is a highly heritable disorder. Genetic risk is conferred by a large number of alleles, including common alleles of small effect that might be detected by genome-wide association studies. Here we report a multi-stage schizophrenia genome-wide association study of up to 36,989 cases and 113,075 controls. We identify 128 independent associations spanning 108 conservatively defined loci that meet genome-wide significance, 83 of which have not been previously reported. Associations were enriched among genes expressed in brain, providing biological plausibility for the findings. Many findings have the potential to provide entirely new insights into aetiology, but associations at DRD2 and several genes involved in glutamatergic neurotransmission highlight molecules of known and potential therapeutic relevance to schizophrenia, and are consistent with leading pathophysiological hypotheses. Independent of genes expressed in brain, associations were enriched among genes expressed in tissues that have important roles in immunity, providing support for the speculated link between the immune system and schizophrenia.
6,809 citations
TL;DR: A genome-wide association meta-analysis of individuals with clinically assessed or self-reported depression identifies 44 independent and significant loci and finds important relationships of genetic risk for major depression with educational attainment, body mass, and schizophrenia.
Abstract: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common illness accompanied by considerable morbidity, mortality, costs, and heightened risk of suicide. We conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis based in 135,458 cases and 344,901 controls and identified 44 independent and significant loci. The genetic findings were associated with clinical features of major depression and implicated brain regions exhibiting anatomical differences in cases. Targets of antidepressant medications and genes involved in gene splicing were enriched for smaller association signal. We found important relationships of genetic risk for major depression with educational attainment, body mass, and schizophrenia: lower educational attainment and higher body mass were putatively causal, whereas major depression and schizophrenia reflected a partly shared biological etiology. All humans carry lesser or greater numbers of genetic risk factors for major depression. These findings help refine the basis of major depression and imply that a continuous measure of risk underlies the clinical phenotype.
1,898 citations
Stephan Ripke1, Alan R. Sanders2, Kenneth S. Kendler3, Douglas F. Levinson4 +207 more•Institutions (71)
TL;DR: The authors examined the role of common genetic variation in schizophrenia in a genome-wide association study of substantial size: a stage 1 discovery sample of 21,856 individuals of European ancestry and a stage 2 replication sample of 29,839 independent subjects.
Abstract: We examined the role of common genetic variation in schizophrenia in a genome-wide association study of substantial size: a stage 1 discovery sample of 21,856 individuals of European ancestry and a stage 2 replication sample of 29,839 independent subjects. The combined stage 1 and 2 analysis yielded genome-wide significant associations with schizophrenia for seven loci, five of which are new (1p21.3, 2q32.3, 8p23.2, 8q21.3 and 10q24.32-q24.33) and two of which have been previously implicated (6p21.32-p22.1 and 18q21.2). The strongest new finding (P = 1.6 x 10(-11)) was with rs1625579 within an intron of a putative primary transcript for MIR137 (microRNA 137), a known regulator of neuronal development. Four other schizophrenia loci achieving genome-wide significance contain predicted targets of MIR137, suggesting MIR137-mediated dysregulation as a previously unknown etiologic mechanism in schizophrenia. In a joint analysis with a bipolar disorder sample (16,374 affected individuals and 14,044 controls), three loci reached genome-wide significance: CACNA1C (rs4765905, P = 7.0 x 10(-9)), ANK3 (rs10994359, P = 2.5 x 10(-8)) and the ITIH3-ITIH4 region (rs2239547, P = 7.8 x 10(-9)).
1,671 citations
Maastricht University Medical Centre1, deCODE genetics2, University of California, Los Angeles3, Utrecht University4, University of Oslo5, University of Bonn6, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich7, Copenhagen University Hospital8, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute9, Aarhus University Hospital10, Aarhus University11, University of Iceland12, University of Helsinki13, Bispebjerg Hospital14, Glostrup Hospital15, Heidelberg University16, Semmelweis University17, University of Verona18, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre19, Russian Academy20, University of Valencia21, King's College London22, Royal Cornhill Hospital23, Duke University24, University of Santiago de Compostela25, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón26, Karolinska Institutet27, Hammersmith Hospital28, GlaxoSmithKline29, Sichuan University30
TL;DR: Findings implicating the MHC region are consistent with an immune component to schizophrenia risk, whereas the association with NRGN and TCF4 points to perturbation of pathways involved in brain development, memory and cognition.
Abstract: Schizophrenia is a complex disorder, caused by both genetic and environmental factors and their interactions. Research on pathogenesis has traditionally focused on neurotransmitter systems in the brain, particularly those involving dopamine. Schizophrenia has been considered a separate disease for over a century, but in the absence of clear biological markers, diagnosis has historically been based on signs and symptoms. A fundamental message emerging from genome-wide association studies of copy number variations (CNVs) associated with the disease is that its genetic basis does not necessarily conform to classical nosological disease boundaries. Certain CNVs confer not only high relative risk of schizophrenia but also of other psychiatric disorders. The structural variations associated with schizophrenia can involve several genes and the phenotypic syndromes, or the 'genomic disorders', have not yet been characterized. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based genome-wide association studies with the potential to implicate individual genes in complex diseases may reveal underlying biological pathways. Here we combined SNP data from several large genome-wide scans and followed up the most significant association signals. We found significant association with several markers spanning the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) region on chromosome 6p21.3-22.1, a marker located upstream of the neurogranin gene (NRGN) on 11q24.2 and a marker in intron four of transcription factor 4 (TCF4) on 18q21.2. Our findings implicating the MHC region are consistent with an immune component to schizophrenia risk, whereas the association with NRGN and TCF4 points to perturbation of pathways involved in brain development, memory and cognition.
1,625 citations
Aarhus University1, Lundbeck2, Broad Institute3, Harvard University4, Cardiff University5, Karolinska Institutet6, Statens Serum Institut7, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute8, deCODE genetics9, University of Iceland10, Mental Health Services11, Charité12, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior13, University of California, Los Angeles14, University of Queensland15, Oslo University Hospital16, King's College London17, University of Toronto18, VU University Amsterdam19, Radboud University Nijmegen20, Veterans Health Administration21, Yale University22, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia23, University of Bergen24, Haukeland University Hospital25, University of Pennsylvania26, Maastricht University27, University of Würzburg28, I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University29, Goethe University Frankfurt30, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul31, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai32, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill33, Emory University34, University of Copenhagen35, Aarhus University Hospital36, State University of New York Upstate Medical University37
TL;DR: A genome-wide association meta-analysis of 20,183 individuals diagnosed with ADHD and 35,191 controls identifies variants surpassing genome- wide significance in 12 independent loci and implicates neurodevelopmental pathways and conserved regions of the genome as being involved in underlying ADHD biology.
Abstract: Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a highly heritable childhood behavioral disorder affecting 5% of children and 2.5% of adults. Common genetic variants contribute substantially to ADHD susceptibility, but no variants have been robustly associated with ADHD. We report a genome-wide association meta-analysis of 20,183 individuals diagnosed with ADHD and 35,191 controls that identifies variants surpassing genome-wide significance in 12 independent loci, finding important new information about the underlying biology of ADHD. Associations are enriched in evolutionarily constrained genomic regions and loss-of-function intolerant genes and around brain-expressed regulatory marks. Analyses of three replication studies: a cohort of individuals diagnosed with ADHD, a self-reported ADHD sample and a meta-analysis of quantitative measures of ADHD symptoms in the population, support these findings while highlighting study-specific differences on genetic overlap with educational attainment. Strong concordance with GWAS of quantitative population measures of ADHD symptoms supports that clinical diagnosis of ADHD is an extreme expression of continuous heritable traits.
1,436 citations
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TL;DR: Associations at DRD2 and several genes involved in glutamatergic neurotransmission highlight molecules of known and potential therapeutic relevance to schizophrenia, and are consistent with leading pathophysiological hypotheses.
Abstract: Schizophrenia is a highly heritable disorder. Genetic risk is conferred by a large number of alleles, including common alleles of small effect that might be detected by genome-wide association studies. Here we report a multi-stage schizophrenia genome-wide association study of up to 36,989 cases and 113,075 controls. We identify 128 independent associations spanning 108 conservatively defined loci that meet genome-wide significance, 83 of which have not been previously reported. Associations were enriched among genes expressed in brain, providing biological plausibility for the findings. Many findings have the potential to provide entirely new insights into aetiology, but associations at DRD2 and several genes involved in glutamatergic neurotransmission highlight molecules of known and potential therapeutic relevance to schizophrenia, and are consistent with leading pathophysiological hypotheses. Independent of genes expressed in brain, associations were enriched among genes expressed in tissues that have important roles in immunity, providing support for the speculated link between the immune system and schizophrenia.
6,809 citations
5,173 citations
TL;DR: A catalogue of predicted loss-of-function variants in 125,748 whole-exome and 15,708 whole-genome sequencing datasets from the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD) reveals the spectrum of mutational constraints that affect these human protein-coding genes.
Abstract: Genetic variants that inactivate protein-coding genes are a powerful source of information about the phenotypic consequences of gene disruption: genes that are crucial for the function of an organism will be depleted of such variants in natural populations, whereas non-essential genes will tolerate their accumulation. However, predicted loss-of-function variants are enriched for annotation errors, and tend to be found at extremely low frequencies, so their analysis requires careful variant annotation and very large sample sizes1. Here we describe the aggregation of 125,748 exomes and 15,708 genomes from human sequencing studies into the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD). We identify 443,769 high-confidence predicted loss-of-function variants in this cohort after filtering for artefacts caused by sequencing and annotation errors. Using an improved model of human mutation rates, we classify human protein-coding genes along a spectrum that represents tolerance to inactivation, validate this classification using data from model organisms and engineered human cells, and show that it can be used to improve the power of gene discovery for both common and rare diseases. A catalogue of predicted loss-of-function variants in 125,748 whole-exome and 15,708 whole-genome sequencing datasets from the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD) reveals the spectrum of mutational constraints that affect these human protein-coding genes.
4,913 citations
Harvard University1, Broad Institute2, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute3, Cardiff University4, North Carolina State University5, Trinity College, Dublin6, University of Edinburgh7, Karolinska Institutet8, Uppsala University9, University of Southern California10, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill11, University College London12, National Health Service13, University of Oxford14, University of Aberdeen15, Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences16, State University of New York Upstate Medical University17, University of Coimbra18
TL;DR: The extent to which common genetic variation underlies the risk of schizophrenia is shown, using two analytic approaches, and the major histocompatibility complex is implicate, which is shown to involve thousands of common alleles of very small effect.
Abstract: Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder with a lifetime risk of about 1%, characterized by hallucinations, delusions and cognitive deficits, with heritability estimated at up to 80%(1,2). We performed a genome-wide association study of 3,322 European individuals with schizophrenia and 3,587 controls. Here we show, using two analytic approaches, the extent to which common genetic variation underlies the risk of schizophrenia. First, we implicate the major histocompatibility complex. Second, we provide molecular genetic evidence for a substantial polygenic component to the risk of schizophrenia involving thousands of common alleles of very small effect. We show that this component also contributes to the risk of bipolar disorder, but not to several non-psychiatric diseases.
4,573 citations