Searching for unique endophenotypes for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder within neural circuits and their molecular regulatory mechanisms.

The endophenotype is a construct that has utility for the study of postmortem brains from patients with psychotic disorders. By identifying networks of genes that show changes in expression within specific neuronal populations implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, it may be possible to move toward understanding these disorders at the cellular and molecular levels. The ultimate goal is to characterize their respective underlying genotypes.