About Our Research
The Psychiatric Genomics Lab, led by principal investigator Anna R. Docherty, PhD, LP, studies genetic risk and resilience across medical and psychiatric disorders, and in the context of severe outcomes like psychosis and suicide. Our lab is particularly focused on reducing risk for severe outcomes across global populations and in emerging adulthood.
Mapping the genetic causes of suicide and psychosis
The Psychiatric Genomics Lab leads cross-disorder efforts to map the genetic structure of psychiatric symptoms associated with the highest rates of global mortality. We conduct global research on severe mental health outcomes as part of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) and lead the largest genetic studies of suicide worldwide (> 1M). With signals from these studies, the research community has been able to characterize the biological mechanisms underlying elevated risk and related environmental exposures (e.g., nicotine, alcohol, trauma, opioids).
Dr. Docherty helps lead the Suicide Working Group of the PGC and contributes to several PGC working groups with a focus on cross-disorder studies in major depressive disorder (MDD), anxiety, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), substance use disorders, copy number variation (CNV), electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) response, and the Latin American Genomics Consortium.
Largest-Ever Genetic Study of Suicide Finds New Risk Factors
"We can better identify those patients who need contact with the mental health care system."
Read more about Dr. Docherty's substantial study that identified 12 DNA variants associated with risk of attempting suicide. The research highlights genetic links between suicide attempt and factors that influence physical and behavioral health.
Learn more about our research
Project 1
NIMH R01 MH123619 (Docherty)
Genome-wide association analysis of suicide death. Collecting, curating, and analyzing the first large genotyped cohort of suicide death, a resource comprising 10,400 population-based suicide deaths.
Project 2
NIMH/Fogarty International Center R01 MH134284 (Docherty/Behera)
Building Resources for the Diversification of Genetic Data on Suicide Death. This project aims to 1) collect blood, phenotypic information, psychological autopsy, and toxicology data from 4,000 suicide deaths and postmortem controls in Delhi, India, 2) to collect brain tissue from multiple areas of the brain in half of the suicide deaths and controls (n = 2,000), 3) to genotype all blood samples, and 4) to conduct multiple cross-ancestry analyses of genetic and phenotypic risks, as well as the first (preliminary) genome-wide association study (GWAS) of population-based suicide death in a non-European ancestry population.
Genetic data from India will be integrated with U.S. data, meta-analyzed with the U.S. suicide death GWAS, and meta-analyzed with 22 international suicide attempt GWAS from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC). Brain samples will be preserved at the All-India Institute for Medical Sciences in Delhi, for future methylation and sequencing analysis with teams across India and the U.S. This biosample collection will represent the only other resource for population-based suicide death in the world, after Utah, and as a diverse ancestry cohort with psychological autopsy, blood, and brain tissue, it stands to significantly impact global suicide research.
Project 3
NIMH R01MH132733 (Mullins)
Establishing the Suicide Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium to elucidate the genetics and biology of suicide outcomes. This project will characterize the genetic etiology of suicide outcomes through genome-wide association studies of at least 69,800 suicide attempt cases, 19,500 suicide death cases, and 206,900 suicidal ideation 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 risks and across global and ancestral populations.
Project 4
NIEHS R01 ES032028 (Bakian)
The Influence of Multiple Environmental Exposures on Suicide Risk
Project 5
NIMH R01 MH123489 (Coon)
Prediction of Suicide Death Using Electronic Health Record Data
Project 6
R25 NS117281 (Welsh)
Training Course for Advanced Statistical Methods in Neuroimaging and Genetics
University of Utah Collaborators
Departments
Meet our research team
Principal Investigator
Anna R. Docherty, PhD, LP
Dr. Docherty is a licensed clinical psychologist. Her research focuses on improving our understanding of the biological risk factors for psychiatric outcomes and suicide across global populations. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Utah.
Selected Publications
- Docherty AR, Mullins N, Ashley-Koch AE, et al. GWAS meta-analysis of suicide attempt: identification of 12 genome-wide significant loci and implication of genetic risks for specific health factors. American journal of psychiatry. 2023;180(10):723-738.
- Docherty AR, Shabalin AA, DiBlasi E, et al. Genome-wide association study of suicide death and polygenic prediction of clinical antecedents. American journal of psychiatry. 2020;177(10):917-927.
- Kimbrel NA, Ashley-Koch AE, Qin XJ, et al. A genome-wide association study of suicide attempts in the million veterans program identifies evidence of pan-ancestry and ancestry-specific risk loci. Molecular psychiatry. 2022;27(4):2264-2272.
- Kimbrel NA, Ashley-Koch AE, Qin XJ, et al. Identification of novel, replicable genetic risk loci for suicidal thoughts and behaviors among US military veterans. JAMA psychiatry. 2023;80(2):135-145.
- Docherty AR, Shabalin AA, Adkins DE, et al. Molecular genetic risk for psychosis is associated with psychosis risk symptoms in a population-based UK cohort: Findings from generation Scotland. Schizophrenia bulletin. 2020;46(5):1045-1052.
- Johnson EC, Demontis D, Thorgeirsson TE, et al. A large-scale genome-wide association study meta-analysis of cannabis use disorder. The Lancet Psychiatry. 2020;7(12):1032-1045.
- Docherty A, Hagler D, Neale M, et al. Does degree of gyrification underlie the phenotypic and genetic associations between cortical surface area and cognitive ability? NeuroImage. 2015;
- Kotov R, Jonas KG, Carpenter WT, et al. Validity and utility of hierarchical taxonomy of psychopathology (HiTOP): I. Psychosis superspectrum. World Psychiatry. 2020;19(2):151-172.
- Krueger RF, Kotov R, Watson D, et al. Progress in achieving quantitative classification of psychopathology. World psychiatry. 2018;17(3):282-293.
- Lázaro‐Muñoz G, Sabatello M, Huckins L, et al. International society of psychiatric genetics ethics committee: issues facing us. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics. 2019;180(8):543-554.
Contact
Anna R. Docherty, PhD, LP
Principal Investigator