John Kelsoe
Professor of Psychiatry, Medical Director of Mental Health Clinical Research Center
M.D., University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL
Email: jkelsoe@ucsd.edu
Research Interests:
Dr. Kelsoe’s longstanding research focus has been the genetics of psychiatric illness, bipolar disorder in particular. Over the past 20 years, his work has focused on using a variety of molecular genetic methods to identify the specific genes that predispose to bipolar disorder. He has pursued this primarily by using positional cloning methods such as linkage and association in families in which the illness is genetically transmitted. He has also employed animal models of bipolar disorder in order to identify possible candidate genes that can then be tested in clinical populations. This approach has led to the identification of the gene for G protein receptor kinase 3 (GRK3) as a likely gene for bipolar disorder on chromosome 22. Dr. Kelsoe is currently actively engaged in genome wide association studies of bipolar disorder. He directs the Bipolar Genome Study (BiGS) which is a 13-site consortium focused on identifying genes for bipolar disorder and their relationship to clinical symptoms. He also co-directs the Psychiatric GWAS Consortium for Bipolar Disorder (PGC-BD) which is an international collaborative effort designed to identify genes for bipolar disorder in a sample of over 10,000 patients. These large new technological approaches promise great advances in understanding the causes of bipolar disorder.
Track(s)
Genetics
Genetics
BMS Focus Areas:
Neurobiology
Selected Publications:
Smith EN, Bloss CS, Badner JA, Barrett T, Belmonte PL, Berrettini W, Byerley W, Coryell W, Craig D, Edenberg HJ, Foroud T, Gabriel SB, Gershon E, Greenwood TA, Hipolito M, Koller DL, Lawson WB, Liu C, Lohoff F, McInnis MG, McMahon FJ, Mirel DB, Nievergelt C, Nurnberger J, Nwulia EA, Paschall J, Potash JB, Rice J, Schulze TG, Scheftner W, Panganiban C, Zaitlen N, Zandi PP, Zöllner S, Schork NJ, Kelsoe JR. 2009 Genome-wide association study of bipolar disorder in European American and African American individuals. Molecular Psychiatry 2009 Jun 2 PMID: 19488044
Zhou X, Tang W, Greenwood TA, Guo S, He L, Geyer MA, Kelsoe JR. 2009 Transcription Factor SP4 is a susceptibility gene for bipolar disorder. PLoS ONE 4(4):e5196, PMCID: PMC2674320
Wu JC, Kelsoe JR, Gillin JC, Schachat C, Demodena A, Bunney BG, Potkin S, Bunney WE Jr. Rapid and sustained antidepressant response with sleep deprivation and chronotherapy in bipolar disorder, Biological Psychiatry, 2009. PMID: 19358978
Kripke DF, Nievergelt CM, Joo EJ, Shekhtman T, Kelsoe JR. Circadian polymorphisms associated with affective disorders, Journal of Circadian Rhythms, 7:2, 2009. PMCID: PMC2661876
The Psychiatric GWAS Consortium Coordinating Committee. Genomewide association studies: history, rationale and prospects for psychiatric disorders. Am J Psychiatry, Am J Psychiatry. 2009 May;166(5):540-56. PMID: 19339359
Zhou X, Barrett TB, Kelsoe JR. Promoter variant in the GRK3 gene associated with bipolar disorders alters gene expression. Biological Psychiatry, 64(2):104-10, 2008. PMCID57036