# Psychosis Genetics Research in Africa: Building Capacity by Investing in People

> **NIH NIH R01** · BROAD INSTITUTE, INC. · 2021 · $593,398

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT
The broad goal of this application is to establish a trans-African neuropsychiatric genetics program that will
ensure the genomics revolution in neuropsychiatry benefits future generations of Africans. Great strides have
been made in our understanding of the genetic architecture of schizophrenia. Ultimately these advances will
play a critical role in reducing the global burden of psychiatric disorders. However, African populations have
been almost absent from neuropsychiatric genetics research and this poses a challenge for both scientific
advance and global equity. Data from African populations in genetic studies of neuropsychiatric disorders are
critical to generate a complete picture of genetic risk factors and identify potentially missing novel therapeutic
signals garnered by studying all populations. The reduced correlation between markers in African populations
is also useful for fine mapping disease-causing alleles. Beyond discovery, recent work on polygenic risk scores
shows that potential for clinical utility of these measures, but also, vexingly, limited cross-population
transferability and by extension poorer performance in uncharacterized populations such as those from Africa.
There is also a significant risk that the recent advances in neuropsychiatric genetics will result in a widening of
the massive research and treatment disparities between Africa and the rest of the world. To bridge this gap,
we have initiated the NeuroGAP-Psychosis project, a collaboration with colleagues at Addis Ababa University
in Ethiopia, Makerere University in Uganda, and the University of Cape Town in South Africa, with the goal of
establishing a multi-national neuropsychiatric genetics research and training program in partnership with the
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to accomplish the following specific aims: 1) Capacity building.
Expand the capacity of African scientists to conduct large-scale genetic studies of schizophrenia and other
psychotic disorders enabling the generation, analysis and interpretation of these data locally; 2) Clinical
characterization. Validate tools for diagnosing and screening for schizophrenia and psychosis. Systematically
characterize the clinical phenomenology of 13,000 patients with schizophrenia and psychotic disorders,
including risk factors, symptom presentation, severity, medication use, substance use, and comorbid health
conditions; 3) Genetic discovery. Perform the largest gene-discovery study of schizophrenia in Africa to
date.In collaboration with local investigators, we will conduct genome-wide association studies of
schizophrenia in ancestrally similar case/control populations. This proposal directly addresses the NIMH
Strategic Plan goal 1.2 “Identify the genomic and non-genomic factors associated with mental illness.” Our
broad goal is to develop a sustainable research and training program aimed at addressing the major limitations
in our knowledge of the genetic and enviro...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10220682
- **Project number:** 5R01MH120642-03
- **Recipient organization:** BROAD INSTITUTE, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Dickens Howard Akena
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $593,398
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-01 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10220682

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10220682, Psychosis Genetics Research in Africa: Building Capacity by Investing in People (5R01MH120642-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10220682. Licensed CC0.

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