B4089 - Genome-wide association study of suicidal thoughts and attempts - 08/06/2022

B number: 
B4089
Principal applicant name: 
Becky Simone Mars | University of Bristol (United Kingdom)
Co-applicants: 
Dr Alex Kwong , Dr Abby Russell , Professor Nic Timpson
Title of project: 
Genome-wide association study of suicidal thoughts and attempts
Proposal summary: 

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been instrumental in highlighting associations between genetic variants and 1000s of traits. A recent GWAS of suicide attempts by the psychiatric genetics consortium (PGC) Suicide Working Group identified 2 genome-wide significant loci (Mullins et al., 2021). The PGC are expanding their work to separate GWAS of suicidal ideation and attempts and are seeking additional cohorts. We plan to include ALSPAC data from the mothers and the children in the next round of analysis for suicide attempts and suicidal ideation PGC GWAS. We will prepare summary statistics from the GWAS to be shared with the PGC and perform subsequent in cohort analysis. This will be a big step towards incorporating ALSPAC data into psychiatric genetics. The summary statistics will contain no identifiable information.

Impact of research: 
These will be the largest GWAS on both suicide attempts and ideation
Date proposal received: 
Wednesday, 1 June, 2022
Date proposal approved: 
Monday, 6 June, 2022
Keywords: 
Genetic epidemiology (including association studies and mendelian randomisation), Mental health, GWAS, Genome wide association study