Genes to Cognition Research

Professor Seth Grant explains that the Genes to Cognition research program is investigating the network of proteins that are important to learning.

The Genes to Cognition program was conceived having made two basic discoveries in neuroscience. One was that, using genetic experiments, proteins assembled with neurotransmitter receptors are very important for the behavior and physiology of mice. And the second was that these sets of proteins comprise not just two or three, but many dozens of proteins and some of those are important in human mental conditions. So, we decided that we needed to study all of these proteins systematically in mice and in humans, in health and disease. Therefore, to do this, we needed to bring together a set of collaborators in a consortium, originally built in the United Kingdom, in Edinburgh University where I was working at the time, and more recently at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, which are two major centers. There are a number of other centers in the UK that bring together clinicians and basic scientists that cover all of the areas of research and all of us are focused on studying those molecules in health and disease.