E-mail: patrick_sullivan@med.unc.edu
Office Phone: (919) 966-3358

Education:

B.S., University of Notre Dame

M.D., University of California, San Francisco

WPIC, Residency, University of Pittsburgh

Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists

Summary Statement:

The major focus of the Sullivan lab is the genetic dissection of complex traits of great public health importance - particularly schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, smoking behavior, chronic fatigue, and autism. We employ genetic approaches to investigating the etiology, pharmacogenetics, and clinical sub-typing of these disorders. We take
the phrase "complex trait" seriously: no single lab will be able to solve these problems in isolation. This requires that we collaborate in a real way with experts in many other disciplines. We have deep links with researchers in other UNC departments/centers, and other institutions worldwide.

Representative Publications:

1.  Bulik CM, Sullivan PF, Tozzi F, Furberg H, Lichtenstein P, Pedersen
NL. Prevalence, heritability and prospective risk factors for anorexia
nervosa. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2006;63:305-12.

2.  Bulik CM, Von Holle A, Hamer R, Knoph Berg C, Torgersen L, Magnus P,
Stoltenberg C, Siega-Riz AM, Sullivan PF, Reichborn-Kjennerud T.
Patterns of remission, continuation and incidence of broadly defined
eating disorders during early pregnancy in the Norwegian Mother and
Child Cohort Study (MoBa). Psychol Med. 2007 Aug;37(8):1109-18.

3.  International Schizophrenia Consortium. Greater burden of rare copy
number variants in schizophrenia. Nature. 2008;455:237-41.

4.  International Schizophrenia Consortium. Common polygenic variation
contributes to risk of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Nature. 2009
Jul 1;460:748-52.

5.  Konneker T, Barnes T, Furberg H, Losh M, Bulik CM, Sullivan PF. A
searchable database of genetic evidence for psychiatric disorders. Am J
Med Gen (Neuropsych Gen). 2008;147:671-5.

6.  Lichtenstein P, Yip B, Bjork C, Pawitan Y, Cannon TD, Sullivan PF,
Hultman CM. Common genetic influences for schizophrenia and bipolar
disorder: A population-based study of 2 million nuclear families.
Lancet. 2009;373:234-9.

7.  Manolio TA, Rodriguez LL, Brooks L, Abecasis G, Ballinger D, Daly M,
Donnelly P, Faraone SV, Frazer K, Gabriel S, Gejman P, Guttmacher A,
Harris EL, Insel T, Kelsoe JR, Lander E, McCowin N, Mailman MD, Nabel E,
Ostell J, Pugh E, Sherry S, Sullivan PF, Thompson JF, Warram J, Wholley
D, Milos PM, Collins FS. New models of collaboration in genome-wide
association studies: the Genetic Association Information Network. Nat
Genet. 2007 Sep;39(9):1045-51.

8.  Schizophrenia Psychiatric Genome-Wide Association Study Consortium.
Genome-wide association study of schizophrenia identifies five novel
loci. Submitted.

9.  Sullivan PF, Neale MC, Kendler KS. Genetic epidemiology of major
depression: review and meta-analysis. Am J Psychiatry. 2000;157:1552-62.

10.  Sullivan PF, Kendler KS, Neale MC. Schizophrenia as a complex trait:
evidence from a meta-analysis of twin studies. Arch Gen Psychiatry.
2003;60:1187-92.

11.  Sullivan PF. Spurious genetic associations. Biol Psychiatry.
2007;61:1121-6.

12.  Sullivan PF, Lin D, Tzeng JY, van den Oord EJCG, Perkins D, Stroup
TS, Wagner M, Lee S, Wright FA, Zou F, Liu W, Downing AM, Lieberman JA,
Close SL. Genomewide association for schizophrenia in the CATIE study:
Results of Stage 1. Molecular Psychiatry. 2008;13:570-84.

13.  Sullivan P, de Geus E, Willemsen G, James MR, Smit JH, Zandbelt T,
Arolt V, Baune BT, Blackwood D, Cichon S, Coventry WL, Domschke K,
Farmer A, Fava M, Gordon SD, He Q, Heath A, Heutink P, Holsboer F,
Hoogendijk WJ, Hottenga JJ, Hu Y, Kohli M, Lin D, Lucae S, MacIntyre DJ,
Maier W, McGhee KA, McGuffin P, Montgomery GW, Muir WJ, Nolen W, Nöthen
MM, Perlis RH, Pirlo K, Posthuma D, Rietschel M, Rizzu P, Schosser A,
Smit AB, Smoller JW, Tzeng J-Y, van Dyck R, Verhage M, G ZF, Martin NG,
Wray NR, Boomsma DI, Penninx B. Genomewide association for major
depressive disorder: a possible role for the presynaptic protein
piccolo. Molecular Psychiatry. 2009;14:359-75.

14.  Sullivan PF, Allander T, Lysholm F, Goh S, Persson B, Jacks A,
Evengard B, Pedersen NL, Andersson B. An unbiased metagenomic search for
infectious agents using monozygotic twins discordant for chronic
fatigue. Submitted.

15.  Tobacco and Genetics Consortium. Meta-analyses of genome-wide
association studies implicate multiple loci for smoking behavior. Nature
Genetics. 2010;42:441-7.

16.  Wray N, Pergadia M, Blackwood D, Penninx B, Gordon S, Nyholt D,
Ripke S, MacIntyre D, McGhee K, Maclean A, Smit J, Hottenga J, Willemsen
G, Middeldorp C, de Geus E, Lewis C, McGuffin P, Hickie I, van den Oord
E, Liu J, Macgregor S, McEvoy B, Byrne E, Medland S, Statham D, Henders
A, Heath A, Montgomery G, Martin N, Boomsma D, Madden P, Sullivan P.
Genome-wide association study of major depressive disorder: New results,
meta-analysis, and lessons learned. Molecular Psychiatry. In press.

17.  Psychiatric GWAS Consortium. A framework for interpreting genomewide
association studies of psychiatric disorders. Molecular Psychiatry.
2009;14:10-7.

18.  Psychiatric GWAS Consortium. Genome-wide association studies:
history, rationale, and prospects for psychiatric disorders. Am J
Psychiatry. 2009;166:540-6.

19.  Sullivan PF. The genetics of schizophrenia. PLoS Medicine. 2005;2:614-8.

20.  Sullivan PF. The dice are rolling for schizophrenia genetics.
Psychol Med. 2008;Epub.

21.  Sullivan PF. The Psychiatric GWAS Consortium: big science comes to
psychiatry. Neuron. 2010;68:182-6.