In order to enable the integration of functional genomic data from post-mortem brain samples from cases and controls new technologies are needed that enable the accurate identification of cell type specific omics profiles and individual level neuronal circuitry. Key examples driving the generation of large relevant datasets are industry-academia partnerships including the BrainSeq25, CommonMind (URLs), and psychENCODE (URLs) projects, which allow investigators to map genes identified in GWAS onto transcriptomics in postmortem tissue from controls and cases with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder (as well as iPSC neuronal cell lines from cases and controls31). A primary goal is to elucidate molecular mechanisms driven by risk variants with the additional benefit that using genetic data can allow causal anchoring of molecular changes and pathology thus avoiding incidental, downstream effects of the disorders themselves and their treatments25.
