| Principal Investigators
Francis McMahon, M.D. |
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Dr. McMahon graduated
University of Pennsylvania in 1982, where he majored in Biology. After a year in Europe as a Rotary Scholar,
he enrolled in The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he received his M.D. in 1987. He stayed
on at Hopkins to complete a medical internship, a residency in adult psychiatry, and a post-doctoral fellowship
in psychiatric genetics before joining the faculty in 1993. In 1998, he became Associate Professor of Psychiatry
at the University of Chicago, where he also served as medical director of the Electroconvulsive Therapy clinic.
In 2002, he came to the National Institute of Mental Health to establish a new
Genetics Unit within the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program (MAP) Dr. McMahon is the recipient of several
honors and awards. Most recently he was named the 30th Mallinckrodt Scholar by the Edward F. Mallinckrodt
Foundation. He serves as a scientific advisor for the National Tourette Syndrome Association, the University of
Antwerp, the RIKEN Brain Science Institute, and the National Institutes of Health Center for Scientific Review,
as well as numerous scientific journals. |
Research Interests |
The mission of the MAP
Genetics Unit is to uncover human genetic variation that plays an etiologic role in mood and anxiety disorders,
such as bipolar disorder and panic disorder, so that better methods of diagnosis and treatment can be developed.
The research methods of the Unit encompass family studies, genetic linkage analysis, and genetic association
analysis. Dr. McMahon's Unit also studies patterns of linkage disequilibrium in the human genome. They are a
participating site in the NIMH Genetics Initiative for Bipolar Disorder, a multicenter collaborative effort to
ascertain and evaluate 750 sibling pairs affected with bipolar disorder and perform genome-wide genetic linkage
analysis. Current research priorities include fine-mapping bipolar disorder susceptibility loci on chromosomes
18q, 13q, and 22q; identification of clinical features that define highly familial clinical subtypes of illness;
and the elucidation of parent-of-origin effects in the familial transmission of mood and anxiety disorders. |
Representative Selected Recent Publications: |
- Cichon S, Buervenich S, Kirov G, Akula N, Dimitrova A, Green E, Schumacher J, Klopp N, Becker T, Ohlraun S, Schulze TG, Tullius M, Gross MM, Jones L, Krastev S,
Nikolov I, Hamshere M, Jones I, Czerski PM, Leszczynska-Rodziewicz A, Kapelski P, Bogaert AV, Illig T, Hauser J, Maier W, Berrettini W, Byerley W, Coryell W, Gershon ES, Kelsoe JR, McInnis MG, Murphy DL, Nurnberger JI, Reich T, Scheftner W,
O'Donovan MC, Propping P, Owen MJ, Rietschel M, Nothen MM, McMahon FJ, Craddock N. : Lack of support for a genetic association of the XBP1 promoter
polymorphism with bipolar disorder in probands of European origin. Nat Genet. 2004 36:783-4, 2000.
- Schulze TG, Buervenich S, Badner JA, Steele CJ, Detera-Wadleigh SD, Dick D,
Foroud T, Cox NJ, MacKinnon DF, Potash JB, Berrettini WH, Byerley W, Coryell W,
DePaulo JR Jr, Gershon ES, Kelsoe JR, McInnis MG, Murphy DL, Reich T, Scheftner
W, Nurnberger JI Jr, and McMahon FJ.:Loci on chromosomes 6q and 6p interact to
increase susceptibility to bipolar affective disorder in the National Institute of Mental
Health Genetics Initiative Pedigrees. Biol Psychiatry, 2004 56:18-23.
- Chen YS, Akula N, Detera-Wadleigh SD, Schulze TG, Thomas J, Potash JB, DePaulo
JR, McInnis MG, Cox NJ, and McMahon FJ.: Findings in an independent sample support
an association between bipolar affective disorder and the G72/G30 locus on chromosome
13q33. Mol Psychiatry, 2004 9:87-92.
- Schulze TG, Zhang K, Chen YS, Akula N, Sun F, and McMahon FJ.:
Defining haplotype blocks and tag single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the human genome. Hum Mol Genet., 2004 13:335-42.
- Schulze TG, Chen YS, Badner JA, McInnis MG, DePaulo JR, and McMahon FJ.:
Additional, physically ordered markers increase linkage signal for bipolar disorder on chromosome 18q22.
Biol Psychiatry., 2003 53:239-43.
- McMahon FJ, Simpson SG, McInnis MG, Badner JA, MacKinnon DF, DePaulo JR.:
Linkage of bipolar disorder to chromosome 18q and the validity of bipolar II disorder.
Arch Gen Psychiatry., 2001 58:1025-31.
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