Abstract

Abstract: Depression is a debilitating mental health condition that is typically associated with low mood, anhedonia, and a range of comorbidities. It is a heritable disorder and increasing samples sizes have allowed us to gain a greater understanding of this genetic component. Dr. David Howard will provide a background to depression genetics, before discussing his paper combining the three largest genetic studies of depression and highlight some of the important findings from that research. He will also then cover some of the latest and ongoing work on genetics and depression.

Biography: Dr. David Howard is a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Research Fellow based at King’s College London. Prior to this he worked in the Division of Psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh. His primary research focus is the use of genetic data to help understand the biological aetiology of depression. He is a lead analyst with the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, and he is involved in multiple projects conducting research in the field of psychiatric genetics. For detailed biography of Dr Howard, please visit: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/david-howard