Ginger Nicol
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Genetics
Antipsychotic medications help many people with mental illness, but they also cause weight gain. This raises the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, conditions tied to accelerated cellular aging.
- Fields
Genetics
Medicine & Clinical Research
Pharmacology
- Topics
antipsychotic-induced weight gain
antipsychotics
cardiometabolic risk
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Dec 2026
What they work on
- Identify genetic variants linked to antipsychotic-induced weight gain and cardiometabolic risk through genotyping, GWAS and meta-analysis of about 15,000 biobank participants, using directly measured body fat rather than BMI.
- Compare genetic risk for antipsychotic-related fat gain and insulin resistance across children, adults and older adults, using existing randomized clinical trial data and stored biospecimens.
- Validate prioritized genes with CRISPR interference and activation screens (CRISPRi/a) in cells exposed to antipsychotic drugs, followed by cellular functional assays to reveal molecular mechanisms.
- Build predictive models of weight-related risk and replicate findings in independent cohorts such as the Psychiatric Genetics Consortium and the Dutch Bipolar Cohort Study.
More about the research
These effects contribute to a 10- to 15-year gap in life expectancy between people with mental illness and the general population. The weight gain also differs by age: children tend to gain more fat and older adults less. Genetics may explain who is most at risk, which could make treatment more personalized.
Why it matters
People taking antipsychotics face higher rates of diabetes and heart disease and die years earlier on average. Identifying genes that predict who will gain the most fat, at each age, could support a precision treatment algorithm. Such a tool could help clinicians choose medications and prevention strategies for children, adults and older adults with mental illness. The study's datasets will also be made publicly available.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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Washington University in St Louis, MO·Genetics
Identify new genetic loci for cardiometabolic traits through genome-wide interaction studies (GWIS) with lifestyle factors in about 1.267 million European, African, Hispanic and Asian ancestry participants.
Penny Gordon-Larsen
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC·Public Health & Epidemiology
Identify gene-expression signals underlying severe obesity using whole-blood RNA sequencing from more than 15,000 people, and build ancestry-informed eQTL maps for underrepresented populations.
Marguerite Irvin
University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL·Public Health & Epidemiology
Identify genetic variants that predict blood pressure response to chlorthalidone (a diuretic) or lisinopril (an ACE inhibitor) in more than 6,500 African Americans from the randomized GenHAT trial, with validation through the ICAPS consortium.
The school
Washington University in St Louis: 97 labs on PI Pages, $1.2B a year on research, 365 research doctorates a year.
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