THE PERINATAL PROGRAMMING OF METABOLISM IN PSYCHOSIS ADVANCING PSYCHIATRIC GENOMICS THROUGH LARGE-SCALE AFRICAN COHORTS

Abstract

Overall Abstract Psychiatric genetics has made remarkable progress globally, yet African populations, harboring the greatest human genetic diversity, remain underrepresented in genomic discovery. This symposium brings together four landmark initiatives that exemplify the scale, depth, and innovation of psychiatric genomics research now underway across the continent. Each presentation introduces a unique cohort, highlighting its design, scope, and analytic strengths, before showcasing results from specific genetic analyses. The DepGenAfrica Consortium and complementary South African studies demonstrate how carefully phenotyped, multi-country cohorts are uncovering biologically relevant loci for depression, while addressing challenges of stigma, ethics, and infrastructure. The Uganda Genome Resource 2 expands a population-based platform into psychiatric genomics, integrating deep phenotyping, whole-genome sequencing, and multi-omics data to reveal the burden and risk factors of common mental disorders. The Drakenstein Child Health Study provides rare insights into the role of exonic variants in child development and cognition, showing consistent effects across African and European populations and validating the generalisability of rare variant burden across ancestries. Finally, a large-scale psychosis study spanning continental Africa and diaspora populations demonstrate how broader representation enhances locus discovery, fine-mapping resolution, and polygenic prediction, underscoring the global impact of African genomic data. Together, these cohorts illustrate the emergence of Africa as a critical contributor to psychiatric genetics. By combining large-scale recruitment, culturally adapted phenotyping, and genomic analyses, they expand the field’s reach, improve cross-ancestry transferability, and strengthen international collaboration. This symposium highlights both the scientific advances and the infrastructural innovations that are placing African populations firmly on the global psychiatric genomics map.