Dr. Petryshen’s research focuses on the genetic basis of major psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression. Her research is motivated by the critical need for better treatments for individuals suffering from psychiatric disorders, as well as early detection and intervention strategies to reduce the prevalence of these disorders. She believes that identifying the genetic causes of psychiatric disorders will provide new opportunities for treatment, detection, and intervention. Recent large-scale patient genetic studies have identified genes that contribute to psychiatric disorders, providing an inroad to understanding how illness develops. Dr. Petryshen’s laboratory is using patient populations and animal and cellular model systems to determine how changes in these genes alter brain function and lead to symptoms in patients or behavioral abnormalities in animal models, and whether clinical medications and novel agents can offset these changes. Her laboratory utilizes a variety of methods in its research, including human genetic association, rodent behavioral neuroscience and pharmacology, biochemistry, and bioinformatic approaches. As part of her aim to understand how genetic changes affect brain function relevant to psychiatric illness, Dr. Petryshen leads the GENUS Consortium, an international research consortium that is studying the role of psychiatric genes in cognitive and brain structure abnormalities in schizophrenia patients.