User:Y.tiwari

Working with Prof Peter Schofield, Yash is focussing on the genetics of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, in particular on a susceptibility gene called sialyl transferase.

It’s a gene that’s highly expressed in embryos and is thought to be important in the early development of the brain in utero. Previous studies have shown this gene to be one of the possible causes of the disorder.

“What I’m trying to find out is how the function of this gene is altered in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia,” says Yash. “It could be affecting the normal formation of neural connections in the developing brain, or influencing mental health in some other way. We don’t know yet.”

His PhD project involves sequencing the whole sialyl transferase gene and looking for variations or mutations in the version of the gene carried by people with bipolar disorder.

He is also looking for mistakes in RNA (molecules that are copies of the DNA code that cells use to make proteins), as well as investigating the interaction of sialyl transferase with another gene called NCAM, which is also thought to be important in embryonic neural development.