In conclusion, collaborative studies for understanding genetic risk of alcohol abuse disorders such as COGA are in a prime position to use hiPSCs to study AUD. These genetic studies have collected large numbers of carefully characterized and individually genotyped cells in repositories, suitable for hiPSCs derivation. The combination of thoroughly characterized clinical phenotypes, risk association genotypes, and functional investigations in patient cells, including gene editing and drug screening, will provide an unprecedented level of individual- and population-based resolution of polygenic disease mechanisms. Future functional studies will need to adapt hiPSC-derived neurons to more high-throughput analyses, such as with 384-well plate imaging or electrophysiological instruments, to greatly increase the number of control and AUD subjects studied. Such multi-level disease characterization will help identify novel therapeutic targets and bring the age of personalized medicine for psychiatric disease to fruition.
