# Establishing the Suicide Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium to elucidate the genetics and biology of suicide outcomes

> **NIH NIH R01** · ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI · 2024 · $859,490

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Suicide results in 130 preventable American deaths every day, and >700,000 deaths worldwide each year. Non-
fatal suicide attempt (SA) affects an even larger proportion of the population with estimates 10-25 times the
number of individuals who die by suicide (1.4 million in the US, >20 million worldwide). Suicidal ideation (SI), the
contemplation of taking one’s own life, is even more common, with a cross-national lifetime prevalence of 9.2%.
While these suicide outcomes are all significantly heritable, only recently have samples reached sufficient size
to conduct well-powered genetic studies, and thus far, these have largely been limited to SA. Large-scale genetic
studies of the full spectrum of suicide outcomes are necessary to elucidate their genetic and biological etiologies,
potential drug targets, and the similarities and differences between them. Here, we establish the Suicide Working
Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, to interrogate the biological basis of the full spectrum of suicide
outcomes in individuals of diverse ancestries, leveraging clinical, population, and medical examiner resources
worldwide. This project will characterize the genetic etiology of suicide outcomes through genome-wide
association studies of at least 69,800 SA cases, 19,500 suicide death (SD) cases, and 206,900 SI cases. We
will elucidate the shared and distinct genetic etiology between suicide outcomes and psychiatric disorders, and
between SA, SD and SI, illuminating the similarities and differences between them. These results will be used
to identify biologically relevant tissues, cell-types, pathways, and drug targets, and to prioritize causal genes and
SNPs underlying genome-wide significant loci. Overall, this proposal dramatically expands and diversifies efforts
to understand the etiology of suicide outcomes, combining prior efforts and expertise from the PI and Co-Is in
genomic studies of SA, SD and SI. The study will provide novel biological insights into genetic risk of suicide
outcomes that will enable potential avenues of therapeutic understanding and risk stratification. Finally, it will
facilitate the worldwide collaborative growth of a highly-powered cohort of diverse ancestries, environmental
exposures, and phenotypes, in which to address many future questions related to suicide outcomes.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10801589
- **Project number:** 1R01MH132733-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI
- **Principal Investigator:** Niamh Mullins
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $859,490
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2023-12-06 → 2028-10-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10801589

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10801589, Establishing the Suicide Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium to elucidate the genetics and biology of suicide outcomes (1R01MH132733-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10801589. Licensed CC0.

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