Grant: Fellowship: Canada Impact+ Research Training Awards - Postdoctoral

"Mental health conditions affect one in five adults in North America. Half of Canadians experience a mental illness by age 40. Despite this enormous impact, progress in diagnosis and treatment has been slow. Most psychiatric diagnoses are still based on symptoms rather than biology. This limits our ability to predict risk, choose effective treatments, or intervene early, when support could have the greatest impact. Genetic research offers a path forward. Whole-genome sequencing captures nearly all DNA, including regions that regulate gene activity. Large studies reveal shared genetic risk across psychiatric conditions, challenging traditional diagnoses and already influencing care, with genome-wide testing now recommended for some neurodevelopmental conditions in Ontario. Despite its promise, whole-genome sequencing remains too costly for routine psychiatric research. Most studies, therefore, focus on adults, narrow diagnoses, or single timepoints, leaving youth, who bear nearly one-third of the global mental health burden, understudied. This limits our ability to understand disease development and intervene early. This project addresses this barrier by using a new, low-cost genome-sequencing technology developed by Ultima Genomics. Through a unique partnership, we have secured free whole-genome sequencing for 300 clinically diverse youth receiving psychiatric care at CAMH. We will rigorously evaluate whether this approach yields reliable, high-quality data and captures important genetic information that standard methods miss. By combining genetic data with brain measures and long-term clinical follow-up, this work aims to establish a realistic and scalable path toward earlier, more precise, and biologically informed mental health care for young people."