Henry Kranzler
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Genetics
Heavy drinking and alcohol use disorder (AUD) run strongly in families: twin studies suggest that roughly half of the risk is inherited. Large genetic surveys have flagged hundreds of DNA spots linked to drinking.
- Fields
Genetics
Medicine & Clinical Research
Neuroscience
- Topics
alcohol use disorder
binge drinking
alcohol consumption
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jan 2028
What they work on
- Map alcohol-linked GWAS variants to the genes they control by combining ATAC-seq (open DNA maps) and Capture C (maps of DNA looping) data from iPSC-derived cortical, dopaminergic and other neurons.
- Screen candidate genes by knocking down or overexpressing their fly versions in Drosophila, then measure alcohol consumption, preference, sensitivity and tolerance.
- Use SNP-CRISPR editing in human iPSC-derived neurons to delete the DNA region around a suspected causal variant and test whether this changes the expression of its target gene.
- Validate candidate genes in four biobanks with European- and African-ancestry participants, testing rare variants and running phenome-wide association scans for links to other traits.
More about the research
Most of these spots sit outside genes, though, so it is often unclear which gene each one actually affects. This project aims to trace those DNA signals to the genes they control and to test whether those genes change alcohol-related behavior.
Why it matters
Heavy drinking and AUD contribute to nearly 10% of U.S. deaths each year and cause serious medical and social harm. Pinpointing the genes behind inherited risk could reveal the biological pathways involved. That knowledge could in turn point to new ways to diagnose, prevent and treat heavy drinking and AUD.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Nicholette Allred
Wake Forest University, NC·Genetics
Identify rare genetic variants associated with liver fat in 23,156 ethnically diverse TOPMed participants, using whole genome sequencing with single-variant and gene-level rare-variant burden tests.
Yanming Li
Baylor College of Medicine, TX·Genetics
Identify the aortic cell types in which TAAD-associated SNPs act, by integrating GWAS results with single-cell ATAC-seq maps of accessible chromatin from human aortic tissue.
Minoli Perera
Northwestern University, IL·Genetics
Identify regulatory variants that affect drug-metabolizing enzymes by analyzing genomic and transcriptomic data from 120 primary hepatocyte cultures, with a focus on African ancestry samples.
The school
University of Pennsylvania: 90 labs on PI Pages, $2.2B a year on research, 750 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.